Who Should Direct The Avengers Movie?
Oct 16, 2009 by Kofi OutlawNow that Jon Favreau has said he won’t be directing the Avengers movie, who should sit in the director’s chair? We have some ideas…
Jon Favreau recently let it be known that he will not be directing The Avengers, Marvel’s super-powered mashup of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, which is being planned as THE summer movie event of 2012. That news dashed the hopes of some, but has thrown the door of possibility wide open for others who are wondering:
Who Should Direct The Avengers?
It’s been pointed out by Favreau, current Avengers writer Zak Penn and even a few directors who have already tried to toss their hats in the ring to direct The Avengers: Making this movie is going to be like riding a unicycle across a tightrope while juggling plates on chopsticks. We’re talking about a film that has to give equal weight to three characters – Cap, Thor and Iron Man (and maybe more) – who are all (best case scenario) going to be blockbuster movie divas in their own right.
(Ok, so I’m making a joke about comic book characters being divas, but seriously, I could just as well be talking about the actors playing the roles, by the time The Avengers rolls around.)
Along with three super divas, there are the (multiple) storylines and subplots of the individual films that will likely factor into the narrative arch of The Avengers:
What happens when Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) lays eyes on Thor (Chris Hemsworth) or Captain America for the first time? Does she go all ga-ga? How would Thor’s girlfriend (Natalie Portman) feel about the competition for her man-god? Will Cap and Thor get cozy in Tony Stark’s plush pads and leer jets – or will Thor prefer the Mjölnir express for his flying mileage? How will Cap deal with Tony’s boozy charm? How will Thor deal with Cap – a mere Midgard mortal – trying to tell him what to do? How will Tony deal with a grandstanding old-timer and a guy who thinks he’s a Thunder god without reaching for a drink?
A bromance has to be built.
None of those questions I just asked are even relevant to the central plot of Avengers – they’re all themeatic and tonal threads that need to be woven together into just the right braid for Avengers to work. On the comic book page, a team-up is usually just the geekgasm of seeing a bunch of heroes getting together to kick ass – it’s purely a novelty. When an unprecedented event like The Avengers – a mashup of individually profitable movie franchises – happens, it’s more than a novelty – it’s three cinematic worlds colliding. Hard to do that without breaking something.
Once the ideas have been fleshed out, and the details of the story settled on, there still remains the task of essentially making three movies in one, while simultaneously making it all look revolutionary and epic. Avengers could potentially reset the bar for superhero films, action films and how the movie biz builds its franchises. For that feat you need more than a director – you need somebody who has the vision to see what could be and make it into a reality that will blow our collective socks off. Any less than that and this movie slips right off the rails into the quagmire of disappointment.
So, who’s up for the job?
Continue reading to see our director picks for The Avengers…
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You need a single vision to tie it all together—and to make the tough calls. Bringing in multiple directors to focus on their main characters does not work towards singular vision.
Since it is a collision of franchises, the plot of the movie should reflect that; a collision of worlds. What happens when the spiritual world of Thor meets the the forced reality of the Iron Man franchise? There’s the movie…which, actually, is most likely a continuation of ‘Thor’.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Bryan Singer should be given the shot. He’s proven he can do a GREAT team-up film with the first 2 X-Men films (with the 2nd being one of the BEST superhero movies, PERIOD). I know he’s probably going to be tied up with one of the X-Men projects, but I really think that he could do a great job with this. Probably won’t happen, but let’s just pray that it’s not Brett Ratner.
Uwe Boll!
Just kidding. I dunno, maybe James Cameron, now when he’s off his mighty throne and directing again?
Joel Schumacher!!! We need Iron Nipples on the Mark V suit.
im up for len wisemen .
but i thought he was working on the Gears of War film.
I know that pretty much everybody knows who Robert Zemmicks is right? He’s that guy who brought both “300″ and “Watchmen” to life. I think he could be a possible canidate.
Christopher Nolan would be a perfect choice for The Avengers after he is finnished with Inception and Batman 3. Then he could be a good director for The Avengers.
joe silver and zach snyder im sorry i loved watchmen.
it is possible for three grown men to collaberate on a project/ Yes, but three franchises? and the accompanying lawyers? Not so much.
BUT if there were an over seer director, maybe….
Peter Berg or
Kevin Smith or
Rob Zombie or
you know, the multiple director idea is as grandiose as the Avengers themselves. That’s the best idea.
How about Joss Whedon?
Just a thought, you know…
Nope this movie should be about family as much as a huge action blockbuster.
Coppola biches,.. Copppla
Dave you are absolutely correct. One director with a singular vision will definitely produce a cohesive movie. A strong artistic and narrative vision is crucial.
I would like to see a director of a higher calibre tackle “The Avengers”. Ridley Scott would be awesome as would James Cameron. What about Steven Spielberg or George Lucas – would they do it, could they?
Other suitable directors that come to mind include Doug Liman, Paul Greengrass and Robert Rodriquez.
@ Random Guy. I believe that’s Zack Snyder bud.
I’m with Kofi’s idea of getting al four directors to collaborate with each other and ultimately do the film together. I think that’s the only way this movie could work great.
Did someone just suggest Rob Zombie and Kevin Smith as directors?? Do we WANT the movie to become a complete joke?? LOL, just kidding.
Anyway, Kofi, out of everyone you’ve mentioned, I can see any of the other characters’ movies directors (Favreau, Leterrier, Branagh, or Johnston) doing it, and out of the others, I can see Len Wiseman doing it, the camera work in Live Free or Die Hard was actually some of the best I’ve seen, the angles he chose to use, the fluid sweeping coverage of the car chase scene, very well done. But Neil Blomkamp, definitely no. Watching District 9 and all of his shorts, you’ll see that he has one style and one style only, and that style would SUCK for the Avengers movie…
And about Matthew Vaugh, eh, I don’t really see that. Like you said about his movie Layer Cake, some people consider that a Guy Ritchie knock off, whether that’s true or not, that is the style of the movie and I actually don’t like those types of movies and would hate for The Avengers to turn into some Guy Ritchie movie…
My typical suggestions of Martin Campbell or James Cameron won’t be good for this I think. Both of them seem to like (or is good at) movies that’s mainly focused on one to three main (bad ass) characters. Not sure how well they handle groups. Even watching Aliens, even though it starts as a group, right off the bat you notice that only about 3 or maybe 4 of them are very well developed while the rest are more like background characters, then of course most of them die off pretty quickly, lol.
And Martin Campbell, 2 James Bond movies, which is a one man show basically, and the Zorro movies, again, one main character. I do think Campbell’s coming movies Green Lantern and Edge of Darkness will kick ass though since hey both revolve mainly around one main character.
So I personally don’t have a good opinion on who would be good to direct if all of the characters are supposed to be equal in weight. If Jon Favreau is right that if he directs he wouldn’t be good since he really only loves Iron Man, I’ll be fine with that, out of them I think my favorite character is Iron Man anyhow, lol.
All I know is, Rob Zombie and Kevin Smith are definitely no’s in my book, lol.
YOU KNOW I HAVENT SEEN PAUL VERHOVEN DO SOMETHING NEW SINCE HOLLOWMAN, OR ROBOCOP OR STARSHIP TROOPERS…HMMM?
How about somebody teaches Stan Lee to use a camera?
Whoever scripts and plots this movie along with whoever directs it will have one the hardest jobs (creatively speaking of course) imaginable. They have to synthesize 3 different characters and franchises into one story. And the struggle has to feel large enough to necessitate all 3 (4, 5?).
Also, the May 2012 release date is necessary to not lose too much of the momentum each individual character story is building, but from a story-telling standpoint, it is not much time. You ideally would want to almost have the avengers script NOW, so that Thor and Cap (shoot, even Iron Man 2, which is almost through shooting–so too late) would really be able to lead into the big story, not just have weird cameos that have no real connection.
I think the idea of collaboration, therefore, makes us, the fans, feel the most comfortable. But is it feasible? Probably not. I think the collaboration is more on the script side of things than the with the director.
But WHO? Glad it’s not my decision
@stephie
I agree, Joss Whedon!!! He’ll throw Nathan Fillion in as Hawkeye………..just a thought.
Since this film is such a huge undertaking, and the actors are all signed to multi-picture deals. The Avengers should not be one film. It should be a 2-part or even 3-part saga, how else could you satisfy all the subplots along with all the characters involved. One film alone would be a waste of all the potential the Avengers has. (Lord of the Rings style) or just get Peter Jackson to direct it.
@stuntmanj
Good call. Peter Jackson is another great director quite capable of handling a 3 part saga.
And if Kenneth Branagh stuffs up Thor, I would like to see Jackson tackle it.
You know Jacob has a point. Why hasn’t Stan, after all these years acquired the experience and anything else to be qualified to direct?? This kind of leads to my idea that if your going to use multiple directors you need a tie breaker, someone who can say this is why were going this route suck it up and get on with it. Could someone at Marvel do this? Should Someone at Marvel do this? The problem right away I see with that is what you asking these directors to do is assist not direct!
Then there’s the Hulk. How do you get a guy like Norton to play Banner when he comes off like, do it my way or forget it. Who ever is involved in this is definitely going to earn their pay. If a single director pulls this off, it will put them in the legendary catagory…
Someone mentioned Bryan Singer over at Advanced Iron (www.advancediron.org), and I don’t know why that never crossed my mind. But why not?!
Paul Verhoeven would be great, too. Vaughn was attached to do Thor but backed out.
heath
I’m gonna throw in Pierre Morel, the director of Taken and District 13. Maybe he’ll need to learn a bit about Super Heroes but the man definitly knows his action and drama.
Bryan Singer or Len Wiseman would be great choices. I don’t agree with the directors from the solo projects coming together to collaborate on the Avengers film. SOmething about too many cooks spoiling the broth.
I think though Kofi if you want the Avengers to feel like family and to have that cohesive feeling that would be very important to this type of film, Joe Johnston would be the best choice from the four solo projects. A short list of some of his films
Hidalgo
Jurassic Park III
October Sky
Jumanji
The Rocketeer
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
SOme good films there and he definitely managed to make you care about the characters..Plus he has a great eye visually for bringing sequences to life..
Ed Norton should direct the avengers. He did good with the hulk, demands full control (which is good), goes by the comics and knows how to incorporate the supernatural (Thor and Hulk).
I realize Ed norton isn’t a director per say but blomkamp wasn’t a movie director either.
Oh and Kofi – great article!
I just don’t see multiple directors working together on the avengers movie because of multiple obstacles. Which director gets paid what? Who has absolute control? Get one director and have him/her get info and suggestions from the director of each movie and then bring it all together.
I’m going to agree with Ken J on this one: NO FREAKIN ROB ZOMBIE!! Zombie would destroy this film and the superhero film genre. Good lord, what a horrible idea!!!
A big NO to George Lucas, too. Sheesh, the man is a great storyteller, but as the last 3 Star Wars movies have shown, he’s NOT a great director. Spielberg would be awesome, would bring that Indiana Jones action to it (hopefully not swinging with monkeys, though).
@ Jacob
LMAO!!!!! Thats a good point, why not stan lee.
Bringing the directors Together would almost as epic as bringing in the Avengers Team-Up. Also whats starting to bother me is the little or lack of Ed Norton as Hulk being a part of this film. I thought he was ascertain.
lastdragon89
Norton should definitely be in it but I don’t think it’s going to happen for some odd reason.
Another thing is why aren’t any directors (besides 1 or 2) stepping up and saying they wan’t to direct this movie? It’s a huge opportunity!