Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, is officially the most successful movie producer of the decade, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Marvel’s latest hit ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ apparently went through multiple stages before its release.
“It’s different incarnations of the script, the different incarnations of the cut of the film. We test; there are earlier versions of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ that you would not be saying nice things about, as is true for all of our films. You cut together what you have and watch it, you see what you have and how you want to adapt it, you go and shoot additional materials (which we do on all of our movies) and we begin to shape it. I don’t think people realize what a collaborative, living, sort of piece of art a film is. Four weeks ago, this movie was different.”
Feige is quick to point out that ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ was intentionally scheduled to come after this spring’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, which was, for most viewers a harrowing, gut-wrenching experience in which half the Marvel Universe was wiped out with a snap.
“We schedule our movies very purposefully. And two-and-a-half months after ‘Infinity War’ – which we had a feeling would leave people reeling with the events at the end of that film – we needed an antidote. We needed another reminder that Marvel Studios makes all kinds of movies and the Marvel Cinematic Universe can have all kinds of tones.”
But just because the Marvel movies are so successful, Feige and his collaborators don’t have a fool-proof system in place. So he doesn’t have any secrets to bestow upon the creators of struggling franchises, like… um… Warner Brothers’ DC Comics franchise.
“I’ve learned in my time being lucky enough to make movies, unless you’re in the thick of it, unless you’re in the shoes, you don’t know what’s going on. Advice doesn’t mean anything. Circumstances can be different everywhere, and to predict what an issue was or who’s doing what . . . I’m just not the kind of person to give advice to people.
“Because it’s all precarious, right? It’s all difficult, it’s all hard. All my time is spent trying to deliver the projects we’re overseeing and are in charge of. Many people, and particularly Disney, have had great success, success that rivals or surpasses our own. I want advice from them!”
Well, considering that the ‘Star Wars’ franchise is at a rocky point after backlash at the conclusion of ‘The Last Jedi’ and the lackluster performance of ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’, Feige might, unwittingly, have more secrets than he realizes. But perhaps we need to wait until ‘Avengers 4’ to see if the Marvel magic holds up.
Source: The New York Daily News
