Being a God probably keeps you fairly busy – there’s always some dark elf or galactic emergency to deal with, but that probably pales into comparison with keeping the mighty Marvel Studios machine in overdrive. It’s hard to think of any serious length of time since Iron Man first rocketed skywards at the box-office that the studio hasn’t been in the process of filming or promoting its vast raft of characters and projects.
Thor: The Dark World opens on 30th October in the UK and on screens across North America thereafter and the team behind it are currently winding their way across Midgard/Earth talking about the state of play. And quite an exciting state that is.
I asked Kevin Feige, the President of Production at Marvel Studios, about the current landscape at Marvel. After all, while DC have had some notable hits, it seems as if Marvel have had the more successful game-plan and strategy, carefully building their universe and slate of interconnecting action projects piece by piece at the cinema… and now also looking to follow Agents of SHIELD to further dominate the television landscape…
“For the most part we’re a tight-knit group at the studio. The movies are very co-ordinated and we’ve announced plans through the end of 2015 but are planning as far our 2017. Sometime next year we’ll announce what those films are. The TV division is up and running with Agents of SHIELD in its first season and I know they’d like to bring more to the tv screen. I’m not sure exactly what and when that will be,” he tells me. “In terms of SHIELD, yeah, they cue off what is happening in the movies and they occasionally check in with us and say ‘Is it okay if we play with that little aspect? It’s very co-ordinated but because it’s such a small group it doesn’t feel like an overwhelming task. It’s just having a lot of fun…”
(Those projects may not be confirmed as yet, but the general thinking is that they may include projects surrounding the likes of Doctor Strange, the Black Panther and a possible spin-off for Peggy Carter...)
We’ll have our review of The Dark World up on the site soon (abiding by the requested embargo) but it’s fair to say that despite the film’s title, there’s a familiar sense of fun throughout the movie. That was something that director Alan Taylor says was a prerequisite and deliberately sought as a way to give balance to some of the darker elements.
“When I went into it, I felt my first task was to darken the world and dirty it up a little bit. That was my mandate going in. But in the process, if we’re going to darken and deepen it and possibly even kill off some characters we love then we better make sure it’s balanced on either side because it’s the key to Marvel universe and the Marvel language. The Avengers came out while we were shooting it. Iron Man 3 came out while we were finishing it, so we were kinda screwed if we didn’t keep it funny and light on its feet at the same time. It’s called The Dark World and there’s some dark currents in it but the humour was critical. I can’t say enough good things about Stellan Skarsgård… the first thing we shot was him running around Stonehenge with a thong. He just did it without batting an eyelid, he was great. He was hilarious.”
“Humour is definitely key,” Feige agrees. “We have spaceships in this movie, we have other planets. We’ve found that humour is an amazing way to get the audience to just embrace and accept all that craziness and all those costumes. It’s worked well for us, going all the way back to the first Iron Man movie.”
A large amount of the film about the God of Thunder was shot on location in the UK and Feige says this was for a combination and a perfect pragmatic storm of reasons.
“It’s no secret that there’s a very good tax incentive which lures the studios here and I don’t want to pretend that’s not the case,” he smiles. “But what keeps us here and keeps us coming back are the amazing crews. We’re starting our fourth film next year at Shepperton. It’s been an amazing experience – all four of them to date.”
It’s both Feige and Taylor who have to shape the finished product and though some early internet rumours suggested there was some disagreement of the finished running time, both men say that such reports were rubbish and at the time, nothing had been formally decided and the result was always going to be what was best for the film in the end.
“There was some rumour going around on the internet… this was my first time editing a film while the internet watches…nothing prepared me for this. There was a rumour about a running time argument at one point. Nobody that I knew, knew what our running-time would be. It was never an issue. It’s an on-going, fine-tuning process… some of my children get murdered on the floor. I mean that metaphorically… “ Taylor laughs. “The editing process… there are so many elements to a story like this. It has to be dark and emotionally engaging… it also has to be funny and constantly earnest. Part of that process is condensing and tightening and making it roll along as quickly as it can. Naturally some things fall out that you wish didn’t… Chris Eccleston did some things I really savoured but we had to lose and I’d be really grateful if they turned up on the DVD or blu-ray at some point.
“I think they will,” Feige nods. “I think we have about ten or twelve minutes of footage planned for the blu-ray…”
This latest maybe The Dark World, but with Captain America: The Winter Soldier due out next year and The Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant Man and The Avengers to follow thereafter... things are looking pretty bright for Marvel...
Thor: The Dark World storms into cinemas on Wednesday 30th October.
Also see:
Thor: The Dark World reviewed: HERE
Petra Yorke on how the bad guys steal the thunder: HERE
