The thought of Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel directing a Marvel movie may sound unusual, as her challenging style is a far cry from the MCU, but she was included on the studio’s shortlist of filmmakers to helm the Black Widow standalone movie, starring Scarlett Johansson.
Martel recently told India’s English-language newspaper The Daily Pioneer that her interest in the Marvel film didn’t go beyond her first meeting with the studio.
“I received an e-mail from Marvel for a meeting,” Martel said. “So I went to the [Marvel 10th Anniversary] reunion. I actually signed this thing where I can’t talk about that reunion. Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers…What they told me in the meeting was ‘we need a female director because we need someone who is mostly concerned with the development of Scarlett Johansson’s character.’” Martel continued, “They also told me, ‘Don’t worry about the action scenes, we will take care of that.’ I was thinking, well I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences.”
With Marvel seemingly not interested in Martel’s approach to Black Widow’s action scenes, the director decided to pass on the gig. Martel had some other thoughts on the process and Marvel movies in general.
“Companies are interested in female filmmakers but they still think action scenes are for male directors,” Martel said. “The first thing I asked them was maybe if they could change the special effects because there are so many laser lights…I find them horrible. Also, the soundtrack of Marvel films is quite horrendous. Maybe we disagree on this but it’s really hard to watch a Marvel film. It’s painful to the ears to watch Marvel films.”
Marvel announced in July it officially hired Cate Shortland to direct the movie. Shortland will be the MCU’s first solo female filmmaker, as Anna Boden is the co-director of this March’s “Captain Marvel” with Ryan Fleck.
Source: The Daily Pioneer
