Whedon Close To Signing On For Avengers Movie

[Wee67]

Does this bode well? I'm a huge Avnegers fan and am very worried about this movie will end up.

From Deadline.com-

I'm told Marvel Studios is in final negotiations for Buffy the Vampire Slayer series architect Joss Whedon to direct Marvel Studios' The Avengers. That's the fast-tracked film that would amount to an all-star team of Marvel superheros, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), as well as SHIELD leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Other signature superheros will likely be involved, but I've listed the actors in active superhero duty. Whedon has been rumored for this job for awhile, and is high on the fanboy wish-list. He's an interesting choice: despite his writing/producing TV series resume, his lone feature directing effort, Serenity, was not a hit. After Iron Man 2, Marvel has three pictures left on a distribution deal with Paramount before it moves to Disney, and the studio has been churning them out. Iron Man 2 gets released in May, Captain America will begin shooting this summer in Europe, Thor is in production, and Marvel Studios just set Pete Sollett to direct Runaways, based on the comic book series created by Lost writer Brian K. Vaughan. Whedon has written installments of the latter, so he knows how to make those superheros fly. Marvel has considered all of the individual superhero movies to be an intro to The Avengers, so the wanna-see on this one will be huge. The film will be released in the first weekend of May, 2012.

Whedon To Direct Marvel Deadline.com

[Earth 2 Chris]

I'd rather see them give it to Favreau. My only fear with Whedon is he's hit or miss, and his distict voice may not fit a homoginzed movie like Avengers.

Chris

[samurainoir]

From a studio standpoint, that sounds like a huge risk given the fact that his film record is Serenity and the Wonder Woman film he couldn't get off the ground.

[BlackKnight]

I liked Serenity ...., But the over usage of B & C actors hurt the film imo.
The idea was neat ..., or so I thought.


I am scared for this Film ingeneral ..., Cap and Thor too.
I liked Ironman and the New Hulk Movie so Much ...., and am afraid somethingd about to suck.

Any word on Norton ?

[thunderbolt]

Supposedly Norton's not signed onto this. Whedon's my last bottom of the barrel choice for what should be the biggest movie of this Marvel run.

[spamn]

I'm interested and think this is great news.

I think he's a great Director, especially when he directs something he wrote. I'm not sure how well he'll fare directing a property so big that he won't be able to have as much control to do it how he sees fit. His latest series, Dollhouse, was definitely his weakest outing to date, due a lot to having to tailor it to what Fox wanted it to be rather than what he tried to make. He does his best work when nobody's telling him what to do.

Also, he didn't write the Avengers script, so a lot of the great sideways plotting that's a trademark of his shows - his tendency to play against trope and convention - and a lot of his wit and humor is likely not to show through. I hope he'll be able to make uncredited (or credited) changes to the script rather than being tied to something that doesn't work.

But maybe with Favreau as Producer to run interference, he has a shot at making a decent film. I heard Favreau shot Iron Man with a lot of improvised dialog and that worked out great.

[samurainoir]

After the big Star Trek win, my pick would be JJ Abrams.

[jwyblejr]

Isn't Whedon rumored to be re-writing the script as well?

[MEMEGO]

Keep him far away from Avengers. If he does it the movie(s) will never have a true ending and may end with an ending which will leave it up to the viwer to decide and at the current cost of films, I want an entire movie for my bucks. I have Spoken, so it be.

[Goblin19]

I love Whedon, but this is a pretty risky choice. I thought they'd pick from their stable of already used dirstors (minus Favreau, who opted out) or pick a really well established director.

[spamn]

Isn't Whedon rumored to be re-writing the script as well?

Yes, now that I've actually read up on this. He's rewriting both this and the Cap Movie script.

This pleases me greatly, I now expect to enjoy the Avengers and Cap films at least as much as I liked Iron Man.

Which is a lot.