Jul
26
While Joss Whedon’s fan base is certainly vocal, it’s never been overbearing in numbers. Serenity proved this – a movie that existed at the behest of its fans could barely scrape its lean budget back at the box office. These figures showed that Whedon’s fans had the passion, if not the power in numbers the movie really needed to succeed.
That doesn’t really matter anymo re, though. When I first heard the report that Joss Whedon was being lined up for Marvel’s 2012 picture, The Avengers, I, like many other loyal Whedonites, squealed (not literally, mind you) in delight. Here, the creator of adored-but-underwatched TV shows such as Buffy, Angel and Firefly was finally handed the means to make a massive mark on mainstream popular culture with one of the most conceptually ambitious blockbusters of our time.
It seemed too good to be true. Whedon’s last high-profile project came in the form of Dollhouse, a commercial failure and divisive among critics, while his long-gestating Cabin In The Woods project continues to have its release date up in the air, Goners seems to be dead and his work on Wonder Woman, a few years ago, sadly came to nothing.
His work on Buffy Season Eight continues to shine, but there’s no denying that The Avengers is Whedon’s biggest project to date. Considering all the directors they could have picked, I’m thankful they’ve picked someone who, traditionally, goes against the curve when it comes to any given project he’s working on. The movie could quite easily of gone in the hands of a safer choice of director, say, one with a history of producing successful blockbuster movies, yet we ended up with a man who, to paraphrase Robert Downey Jr at SDCC this weekend, they knew we’d love.
I like this a lot. Joss Whedon is finally working on something I know that my non-genre-skewed friends will actually watch. If it’s a success – and commercially speaking, considering the already-massive box office take of the Iron Man films, it’s a safe bet – Whedon’s fan base could grow exponentially.
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I have every confidence in Joss and I believe he could bring a lot to this picture. Hopefully it will turn out to be a success and we will get more sequels along the way. :)
I doubt The Avengers has the mainstream appeal The Dark Knight has, my friends will see that but they have no interest in seeing Iron Man. Let alone a movie with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. I’ll say that there’s a difference between the US and Europe, as in the US there’s a better chance for good box office sales but I just don’t see it happening in Europe. The general public(including teens/adolescents) just don’t know The Avengers over here. Or at least, not enough for the movie to do well.
Being a Whedonite, I was also very happy to hear this news. I think he will do a great job as well as having the cred. In Australia both Marvel and DC have an equal footing so it will succeed if its any good.
Sorry CAPTAIN SUBTEXT I think you are very wrong,if the Iron Man franchise alone can make 2 HUGELY sucessful films…The box office can only go up adding more heroes which if not already huge in Europe, both A) have a strong and loyal following as it is and B) already have been introduced to cinema going audiences with The Incredible Hulk,Iron man 1 and 2 and soon Captain America and Thor. People will be well aware of the Avengers by the time it hits the big screen,and the appeal of the characters has so much potential to appeal to a younger audience as well as the grown ups because the avengers a re just plain cool-and besides,who doesnt know the Avengers! Sorry about this wee rant,just wasnt very impressive with your Anti Marvel comment mainly because your wrong!
It will depend on how good Captain America and Thor will be. If they work, Avengers could certainly do great otherwise I think it’s gonna be a flop.
Iron Man 2 was a bit poo,and it was a monster hit
Hey, I love Marvel Comics, it wasn’t an anti-Marvel rant. I just think Batman is much more of a household name with non-genre fans than Thor or Captain America. I mean I’ve been reading comics since the mid nineties yet The Avengers is something I never really took an interest to(maybe I’m letting my personal taste be too much of a thing here), so maybe I’m wrong.
I also hope audiences don’t consider all these new Marvel movies as overkill. Plus, I think it will be hard to create different movies that are all supposed to tie in together without losing viewers. Thusfar(with Incredible Hulk and the Iron Man movies) it’s worked because there’s very little that actually tie does movies together(2 or 3 scenes at the end of those movies). Nevertheless, I hope Whedon will succeed and we all get a kick-ass superhero movie. I doubt it though, because he hasn’t done anything above average since Firefly, which was what, 8 years ago?
For the record, I loved Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. So far, so good.
CAPTAIN SUBTEXT good comments well put- i can respect that
I think it was unfortunate that more people didn’t see Serenity. Those people that I have “bullied” into seeing it have loved it. Whedon’s skill for creating characters that viewers care for is something that the network heads don’t value. (Although Dollhouse had some good episodes, overall Dollhouse was a misstep.) The Avengers will finally give him the exposure to a wider audience who will embrace him as much as our genre has. I am hoping that if he ever (but probably not) does television again, that he’ll consider one of the cable networks which is really where scifi needs to be in order to survive.