Joss Whedon in talks to direct Marvel’s “The Avengers” film
Joss Whedon (Associated Press photo)
Joss Whedon is in final negotiations to direct Marvel’s superhero team film “The Avengers,” reports our pal Matt Price of Nerdage and Deadline Hollywood.
The “Avengers” film will team Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and likely also will feature SHIELD’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). The individual heroes’ films are set to lead into “The Avengers,” so this certainly has to be considered a valuable property for Marvel.
As Matt points out – and he would know – Whedon has enormous geek cred as the creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and as the writer of comics including “Astonishing X-Men” and “Fray.” The multi-talented nerd hero even has an Oscar nomination to his name as one of the co-writers of Pixar’s landmark animated film”Toy Story.”
The downside of Whedon: His sole feature film directorial effort, “Serenity,” was not a box-office success, though it rated highly with fans and critics.
Matt notes that Whedon has been approached about helming comic book movies before. He was previously attached to “Wonder Woman,” but eventually left because of creative differences. He was approached about “X-Men 3″ but passed to work on “Wonder Woman.”
For me, Whedon has always been a hit-or-miss storyteller: I adore “Dr. Horrible” and “Toy Story,” but I never could get into his best-known creation, “Buffy,” to the dismay of my super-fan sister. It will be interesting to see if he gets the job – and whether he and Marvel can make a great movie out of some superheroes.
-BAM
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