Last week, the President of Marvel Studios took a break from backstroking on piles of box office gold a la Scrooge McDuck and dropped in to talk with Ben Sherwood, the President of Disney | ABC Television Group and a few of us lucky muggles got to spectate.
Fortunately for you, I was taking notes because this was a Master class in Marvel Film History and other awesomeness…..
Here are some things I learned in no particular order:
- For starters, it’s pronounced [FIY-ghee]
- As some of the best Hollywood stories begin, Kevin also started out as an Assistant; and look at him today, Ma!
- Kevin was rejected 5 times to USC before he got accepted on the 6th time, ironically using the exact same application that was denied on #5; so be persistent
- When Kevin began at Marvel, they were more interested in being a Kite company than a movie production studio. That’s not a euphemism. Literally, dudes would walk by at work carrying Kites they had designed and were going to field test. How far they’ve come, he marvels.
- Did you see what I did there? That’s gold people. Pure Acuff gold.
- Some of Kevin’s early Marvel Producer training was on films like X-Men, X-Men 2 and Sam Raimi’s Spiderman, watching other Studios creatively control the fate of their Marvel icons. He talked about creative skirmishes that would come up; like battling with hair and makeup to give Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) the iconic Wolverine hair style in his first appearance.
- On that subject, it was important with all the Marvel icons to introduce them with their look and hair style spot-on in the beginning. Thor, for example, had to have long blond hair, blond eye brows, Hammer and Cape. But, later as Chris Hemsworth embodied Thor, it was less necessary to sell the minutiae and they could deviate and evolve/explore; to wit, in the latest Thor: Ragnarock where all of his hair is chopped off.
- Incidentally, Kevin trains at the same gym where his Marvel superheroes train; nothing intimidating about that at all, he assures us.
- Infinity Wars Part 1 has been shot, the cast/crew are taking a short hiatus and then move into shooting Part 2 through the end of the year.
- Kevin gets asked all the time when the superhero film craze will end. He says that in one year (2003) Ang Lee’s Hulk, Ben Affleck’s Daredevil and Thomas Jane’s Punisher were made. If that didn’t kill the Superhero trend, nothing will, he says.
- Story-wise, their driving Marvel Studios philosophy has been “if it doesn’t seem risky to someone, it’s probably not worth doing” — this carries from their first film out of the gate in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man, all the way through Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange and Black Panther.
- When asked about Wonder Woman, Kevin gives the film a solid “A” and spends the next few minutes bragging on Patty Jenkins and the entire cast/crew that worked on it. It’s a nice moment.
- On who they choose to direct their films, Kevin talks about one of the driving questions is “who has an interesting voice to direct this film”? And they talk with that person and give them very realistic expectations of working within a Franchise system and being accountable to the Movie itself, not just their own artistic vision.
- Kevin says that pre-screenings (some in the very magical room we’re sitting in! squeeee!) are a very important part of their post-process as they fine tune to the final cut of the film. Which jokes are landing, which are duds; which moments could be emotionally more resonant, etc.
- Kevin mentions they approach each film, not as a Superhero movie, but as a very specific genre itself so that every film is a new/first for them. Ant Man was the first Marvel Studios heist film. Guardians was their first Space opera. Thor was their first sci-fi/fantasy genre. Spiderman:Homecoming was the first High School/John Hughes type film.
- Kevin says there’s a Marvel Creative Committee of about eight people, all who are home-grown within the Marvel family, who go on retreats together to map out the next 3 to 5 years’ slate of films and their genres. For example, when they found out they could be getting access back to Spiderman, they went out and mapped him into the MCU as well as came up with the idea of “Homecoming” and the whole John Hughes’ vibe the film would have
- Per the film’s effects, Kevin had an interesting note about in the early days you could do anything with VFX so they began giving themselves limitations so those FX would appear more real. Like, when Iron Man is flying, it’s all CG so you could easily track him in the frame, no problem. But instead, they decided to build the shot as if it is a Helicopter tracking shot. And sometimes, Iron Man flies out of frame and the “camera” adjusts for that. It helps the CG feel less synthetic and adds personality to the shot.
- As a funny side note, Kevin mentions that Stan Lee is as proud of his Marvel Film cameo’s as he is of anything else he’s ever done at Marvel. More so!
- Lastly, when asked if there was any hope of Fox releasing “Fantastic Four” back into the MCU, Kevin doesn’t rule it out. Anything is possible because, he reminds us, he started with a Kite company that’s now a $10B film studio. But currently, there is no discussion about doing so. Boo.
- Nuff said.