WEBVTT - Ep72 - Anthony & Joe Russo / "Avengers: Infinity War" 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:18.279 M h. You're listening to playback a Variety I Heart 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.120 Radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety Awards Editor Chris Tapley. 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.239 If you haven't been paying attention, Marvel's Avengers Infinity War 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.440 is still stacking up her seats after breaking the all 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.240 time opening box office record last weekend. Just before release, 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.240 I sat down with director's Anthony and Joe Russo to 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.680 discuss their approach to lifting familiar story beats off the page, 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.320 decimating expectations, and a cliffhanger ending and tying several strands 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.239 of a decade long narrative together. All of that and 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:50.000 more on this week's episode. So sit tight, this is playback. 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.479 Open up a little bit more. Are you kidding? It's 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.800 a yeah. It's like an amazing energy change. Thing about 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:11.800 that pressures that we saw the movie. So it's twenty 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.640 three days hard. I can't really talk about what don't 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.920 want to really talk about. I wait to the film. Also, 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.160 it's like, you know, you get pushed into this like 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:22.600 because you have to be vague. You have to. It's 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.680 not only being vague, but it's being like potentially so 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.960 vague that you're misdirecting, you know what I mean? Like 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.200 perhaps even almost giving something more away than if you 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:34.680 had just been a little more candid or could have 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.120 been a little more Yeah, because you're trying to tiptoe 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.000 around something and more like are you talking about this 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.880 or that? Yeah? Exactly. So it's like it is a 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:47.440 big change change how close you have to be, Like, 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.280 it's closer you can so if you're able, you know, 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.800 tends just kind of to this. Have you have you 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.640 seen the movie yesterday morning? So at least you're talking 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:04.080 to Tony Brother. We've had Taygon, we had Ryan just 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:10.320 a little closer. Yeah. Yeah, you just give him just right, 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.800 very funny taker. And Jeff Goldblum given this guy more 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:20.720 little oh yeah, yeah, just started doing stuff like this, Yeah, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.040 giving exaggerated looks and stuff. Yeah, he's a good you know, 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:30.120 he has a good performing gene. And yeah, and Jeff 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.400 goldblue Man, were you at the press conference that he 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.480 didn't he hosted the press conference? So did junk at 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:40.480 in l A this weekend. He was amazing. He's so funny. 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:43.919 I love you just have him host every press Yeah 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:50.440 exactly almost. Jeff was here for a while. We used 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:52.200 here for like an hour and a half. Yeah, he 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.200 was just like he didn't have anything to do until 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.200 like hours later in Santa Monica. Took a ton of 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.160 photos with him and yeah, it was like six x 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.160 thirt eating and after business. Ye think he say he's awesome, 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.640 really cool. Yeah, he's He's one of the coolest. It's 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.440 even amazing stories. It's a whole other energy that you're 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.760 warped into you're talking to him that takes some like 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.160 half hours shake it after. Oh yeah, yeah, he's like 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.000 he's on his own plane. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, you got 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:30.560 it all sweet, it's all right. Just ah man, you 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.960 guys are good on time, right Yeah, yeah, yes, we 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:44.280 were were fine. Sweet, Thank you him, wrap up and 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:53.640 we'll start. Thank you Dan, thank you. Thanks man. So 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.800 we're recording. You know, we got a casual intro thing 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.960 we did. So I'm here with Anthony and Joe Russo, 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:05.440 the Russo brothers, directors of an Avengers Infinity War, which, uh, 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.080 you know, I made this joke when we had Ryan 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:08.880 Googler in the show. Is a film I'm sure everyone's 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:13.240 heard about. And if you haven't, where you've been coming 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.039 on the show, guys, um the movie comes up. The 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.080 movies out now actually, so you know, that having been said, 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.200 I'm sure a number of people haven't seen the movie. 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.000 So if you haven't seen the movie yet, you might 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.000 want to come back to this conversation. You know, leave it, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:28.840 come back later after you've seen it. We're not gonna 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.600 dive into big spoilers, but you never know what might 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.680 come out in the conversation. So just to let everyone 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.760 know at the top, so noone yells at me, but yeah, 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.280 thanks for coming on the show. Guys really appreciated. Uh 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.040 you guys, Uh, Anthony and Joe. Obviously you directed the 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.839 Captain America's Equals went your soldier and Civil War. So 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.279 you know my first question here, I haven't looked into this. 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.080 I was curious just where the conversation shifted from that 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.240 to hey, do you guys want to take over the flagship? 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:56.080 You guys want to take over you? Like, how did 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.800 how did that happened? That was while we were in 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.080 post I believe on so World War Uh. You know, 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:05.240 we've had a lot of great experiences with Marvel and 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.880 we get along really well with everyone over there. Um, 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.640 you know, we we enjoy working there. They give us 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.240 an incredible amount of trust. Let us tell the stories 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.359 that we want to tell uh. And and we have 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.600 a great relationship collaboration with Markus McFeeley, the writer's Christopher 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.560 Marcus and Steve McFeeley, who wrote all four films that 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.160 we've done with Marvel. So we're a little bit of 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:30.240 like a sub studio, uh, like a little hive mind 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.800 that that started in the in the cap universe, but 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.400 slowly those films started to absorb the main Avengers storyline. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:43.040 So I think to them that made sense that we 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.120 should only continue what we had done in Civil War 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.120 into an affinity war, you know, and the ending of 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:52.080 Civil War, you know, with the Avengers divided in the 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.000 relationship between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark destroyed. I think, 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.120 you know, it was such it seemed like such a 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.720 a great set up for the Avengers finally facing their 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.120 greatest threat in Thanos, that there was just a natural 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.479 narrative progression there. And you know, once, like Joe was saying, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:12.839 I think basically it's like once they saw the first 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.679 edit of Civil War, I think that's basically when the 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.440 conversations began. And certainly Civil War proves that you guys 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.480 can handle all these different and your TV work as well, 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.599 but these different threats, these different characters, because this is 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.440 a movie that has this massive ensemble. Civil War was 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.840 kind of like waiting into that already, right, yeah, very much. 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.160 I mean that was that was a huge ensemble. I mean, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.960 you know, even even Winter Soldier was an ensemble really. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:41.960 But you know, it's like seems like every time every 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.440 movie now we've more you know, doubled, more doubled or 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.920 more than double the size of the ensemble. So yeah, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:52.200 Civil War uh was you know, we definitely look, Joe 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.640 and I have always thought about our creative process. We 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.560 we've like analogized it to like being mad scientists, you know. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.679 We like to take desperate elements and kind of smashed 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.280 them together in unusual ways and just see what that 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.200 makes and see what that brings you creatively. And I 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.320 think that, you know, starting with Civil War and certainly 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:13.400 continuing through Infinity War, that has been the very process 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.600 of like making these movies, because we have been taking 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.360 these characters from different different films, different tones, different styles, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:21.840 and figuring out how do they exist in a single 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.080 film together? What does that do to them when you 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.800 mix them? And uh, yes, that's so I think. Yeah, 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.000 we began that process in Civil War. Even that having 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:32.320 been said, I mean, like I said, this is a 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.040 movie with so many moving parts, so many threads to 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.520 pull together. Uh. The most impressive thing to me is 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.640 that the balance that you strike is so um, it's 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.160 it's solid. I mean, there's there's no like everyone has 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.880 not just their moment, but their ark. Everything feels full, 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.280 it's not like things are just nominally dropped in because 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:52.640 we want to get all these wold things in there. 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.800 Like everything. The balance is really captivating to me. And 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.360 it's maybe it's partly a screenwriting question, but you talk 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.480 a little bit about that finding the balance when you 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.960 have this many moving parts, and on top of that, 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:05.680 I'm curious if there was ever a moment in the 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:10.840 development where you know you just felt completely overwhelmed. Uh. 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.800 We have a very disciplined process that um. That is 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.640 part of our collaboration with Marks mcpheely. That involves getting 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.960 in a room together, the four of us for months 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:26.880 on end discussing story, character, potential arcs for characters. Where 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:28.480 do we leave them last, Where do we want to 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.280 leave them? What are we trying to say with the film. 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.880 Thematics are really important to us. Usually we can't proceed 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.040 with the story. And to understand the theme is that 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:40.720 we're trying to trying to chase uh and I think 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.880 you know this is it's an incredibly disciplined process, is 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.120 one that Anthon I forged through years of producing television. 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.640 It's got a bit of a writer's room approach to it. 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.240 We have a screen, we have a computer, you know, 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:56.960 like I said before, there's a hive mind in the room, 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:00.560 and we're all collectively talking story and bouncing ideas off 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.760 of each other. Um and we all have you know, 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.199 war al Wolvers in the Marvel universe at this point. 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:10.040 So the process is putting characters up on a board, 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.640 discussing them in great detail, each one of them, talking 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.079 about who fits in the story who doesn't. It's very 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:19.000 important us that we find the characters who have the 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:23.079 emotional connection to the a story on this movie. In particular, 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:28.800 that that's Gomorrah Thor as well um want Vision and 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.880 Wanda vision obviously because he's wearing one of the mcguffins, 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:33.600 or he has one of the mcguffins in his head. 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:39.280 Gomera has a pre existing relationship with Thanos. Thor has 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:45.640 a vendetta against Thanos. So you know, you fish around, 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:51.360 you find that that emotional connection to the villain, uh, 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.760 and then you build in all the other characters around that. Tony. 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.240 This is what's unique about this movie. The Kid could 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.600 not have been made with eighteen films pretty seating it. 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:06.440 It's just a it's a unique attempt at narrative in 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.720 a way that you know, could only exist with with 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:15.480 this giant mosaic preceding it. So the you know, Tony 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:20.079 Stark has a history as a futurist. Um, he's got 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.800 to you know, predicting uh, the end of the Earth 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.960 and that that threat will come from space. So he 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.200 already had a built an arc relating to Thanos. Even 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.760 though he didn't identify him personally, he understand he understands 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:37.840 what Thano say is and always knew this was coming. 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:40.400 So this is just a payoff of an arc of his. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.120 It's it's a m I've been in play for for 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:48.800 several years now. So that that's how we slowly pulled 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.959 together the points of view and the story. Um. Once 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.120 we have a script, we then sit in the room 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.320 again for many many weeks, and we go through the 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.760 script uh, and each day we spend time on each 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.640 character just you know, like today's Tony Stark day. I'm 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.520 just gonna sit and read this gap from Tony Stark's 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.320 point of view. The next days, uh Steve Rogers day, 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.439 or to Child's day, and then you know you really 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.160 combed through and go what do they want at the beginning? 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.440 What are they getting by the end? Where there moments 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.360 in the movie, what are we trying to say about 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.480 the character? And so it's just like you just you know, 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.400 it's a process just putting coat paint on the house 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:30.880 after code of pain after code of pain. Uh, you 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.720 know this is sort of kind of the well, actually 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.199 the question about feeling overwhelmed, did you ever have moments 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.400 where you have to just step away from this big 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:41.559 board of all these threads and clear your head? I mean, 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:45.120 you know it's surprisingly for me, the most overwhelming, uh 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:47.720 part of it was just the very beginning. You know. 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:53.240 We started the process by basically putting uh pictures of 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:55.560 every single character in the m c U on the 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.880 wall of our room with Bartus and mcpheley, and you know, 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.360 just looking at them for days and weeks and stead 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.599 of thinking about who we could play with, who we 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.840 could pull forward where we can push pushed the characters. 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.800 And I think just getting started was a little overwhelming 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.400 because there were just so many possibilities. And I think 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.880 once we did start, once we started to catch those 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.000 emotional threads, like Joe was mentioning that, then of all 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.360 of a sudden, it's sort of got much easier and 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.720 it started to flow, and we started to have a 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.560 have a have a narrative spine, and a and a 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.719 theme and a concept that we were chasing. And then 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.640 once that happened, then it certainly remained a lot of 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:35.080 hard work, but it was no longer overwhelming. Yeah, this is, 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.600 you know, sort of the the m c U version 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.160 of the Infinity Gauntless story obviously written by Jim Starlin, 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.240 big product of a number of childhood's, my own included. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.760 I went back and read it again before the movie, 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.920 just because just out of curiosity, you see what might 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.319 be plucked trument or whatever. I'm always curious with comic 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:54.400 book movies what kind of graphic inspiration comes from what's 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.959 on the page? Like will will there be an attempt 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.000 to duplicate a frame or something like that, something that 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.760 might be iconic. I mean, there's Certainly the way the 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.040 line Thanos is coming is handled is an interesting shift 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.040 from the character that says it in the story. But uh, 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.960 just as directors and trying to figure out visually how 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.120 to tell the story, do you kind of look at 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.560 frames and say this would be an interesting thing to 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:18.800 lift or no, because the more I look at a 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:20.160 lot of these movies, there's not a lot of that 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.800 going on. There's some some and it depends that the 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.320 director to director. And we grew up on comic books. 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.960 We love them. I still have three thousand comic books 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.400 in my closet, you know, so as they you know, 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.320 we we are comic book fans. However, you know, uh, 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:40.520 filmmaker is incredibly different media than than a book. And 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.760 you know, uh, we're not telling the story of these books. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.199 We're telling the story of the Marvel Cinematic universe as 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.760 it's been laid out over the last decade. So uh, 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.400 you don't want to get trapped into trying to replicate 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:58.000 specific story elements that don't correlate to what we've been 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.880 doing in the Marvel Cinematic in so, um, you know, 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.800 we will elicitly there are lines that inspire us, or 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.319 there are frames that will put up in Civil War 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.640 is a frame where famous frame from the book with 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:15.880 with Tony blasting cap shield and we I think that's 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:20.120 probably the only time maybe um aunt man, I'm hawkay zero, 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.480 you know, so very rarely that we will actually go 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.080 this is an amazing frame from the book. We gotta 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.440 put this in the movie somewhere. I think there's one 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.240 moment in this but it's not you know, it take 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.040 you of you or two to catch. But it's when 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:37.480 them t Chila punches. Um what we're who were calling 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:39.760 cold City and but was black Door for the books 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.840 and they've been run when Tony takes the shield than 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.880 last thing, I'm un tightened. Oh yeah that image as well. 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.000 But yeah, yeah, so they're but but yeah, I would 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:49.960 say the image. We treat the images kind of like 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:51.680 we treat the ideas that are in the books. Are 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.400 the lines, like Joe was mentioning, they're all so they're 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:56.760 all sort of exciting to us and are all valued 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.400 by us. But you know, in the pro sense of 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.240 telling an original story in the movie, you know, you 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:06.280 can't really there's only a little bit of that that 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.200 you can actually hang on to. Yeah, there's there's kind 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.720 of subconscious things you can play with their like color palette. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:13.440 Do you look at the colors of what's in these 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.520 books and say, you know, obviously the characters have their 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.160 own schemes, but just environments and things. I asked Taka 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.240 about this because his movie was such a big, kind 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.440 of very colorful splash, but talk about that there's the 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.400 colors a little it wasn't. I mean, specifically in Winter 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.720 Soldier in Civil War. Those movies were of a piece 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.520 for us because we were retoning and deconstructing Captain America 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.360 and there were the intention was for them to be brutalist, 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.560 devoid of color. We wanted them to be less comic 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:45.680 bookie and more gritty and edgy and real. Um, so 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:50.640 we were we were trying to simplify the color palette 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.920 on those movies. Um. This film in particular, we didn't 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.840 draw anything specifically from the books. But there's a very 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.280 different film and it's in the point of view a 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.360 Thanos is a giant purple alien, so uh, and you 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:06.920 go to a lot of really exotic, cosmic location. So 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.720 it's a much more colorful movie. And these color is 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.360 a way to distinguish locations in the film. So the 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.240 unclear understanding when you're one place and then when you 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.000 had left that place and go on to another place 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.760 of an incredible maybe the best production of that of 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.080 the business right now. Gentleman named Charlie Woods, who who 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.800 designed all of these exotic locations for us. So, um, 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:32.520 we didn't really draw artistic inspiration from the books. We 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:37.800 drew I think thematic and philosophical and uh inspiration as 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.360 well as a couple of key lines. But it could 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.000 we were. We are making so many distinct changes from 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.440 the books. I think that's you know, really what we 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.040 do is we tailor color and texture to the to 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.280 the essence of the narrative that we're trying to tell, 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.560 and very often that is significantly different than the book, 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:57.320 you know. And then and then I think that's what 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.200 leads us away from the from using relying on colors 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.360 specifically from the books. Yeah, he started talking about Thanos there. 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.919 I wanted to talk about Josh Brolin, who uh surprised me, 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.480 and I only say that because I don't want to 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:11.879 say I thought he would phone it in, but I 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.520 didn't know what he would do with the performance. I 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.600 didn't know if it would be something that would have 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.080 the kind of depth that it has, and it's such 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.880 an emotional performance. It's such a deep character that has 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:26.720 just this overwhelming sense of melancholy. And I was really 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.280 blown away by his work and just one amazing jan 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.800 I mean, he's an extremely talented actor. I mean, he 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.280 looked the and I think he was very excited by 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:41.280 the opportunity to play somebody who had so much violence 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.960 in him but also some shred of humanity as well. 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.720 And I think that you know that that sort of 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.720 that that that's very exciting for an actor, because it's 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.359 such a complex thing to play, you know, to try 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:57.560 to to try to bring mp empathy to a character 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.479 that is is so evil, UM and the and he 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.320 embraced that challenge and he ran with it. And I 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.760 also think that he was very excited by the technology, 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:10.000 you know, the idea of you know, performing in a 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.880 motion capture suit and sort of and us being able 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:17.280 to build this fantastical creature CG creature, but based so 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:21.679 specifically on his performance, his facial performance, his voice, his 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.560 body movements, etcetera. UM, I think he really you know, 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.399 we would analogize that sometimes it's almost like you're a 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.160 puppeteer as as a performer, and you have to learn 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.240 how you control the puppet, which is your CG representation 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.600 of the character. And we spend a lot of time. 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:38.639 We had we had a we had a Terry Notary 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.359 worked on the film who's extremely one of the best 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.160 movement people in the business. That he worked very closely 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.639 with Josh to get him to understand the relationship between 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.800 his movements and Thanos's movements. And they would practice quite 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.239 a bit before we would get to shooting, so they 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.600 got very comfortable with the character. So it's a very 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.720 very involved process. And I think Josh was just excited 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:00.720 by the whole proposition, and I think a one point 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:01.960 he's turned us and he goes, oh my god, it 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.320 feels like I'm into film. Are an acting school again, 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.359 because you're really sort of bringing somebody into a place 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.320 that almost feels like an acting exercise, or you're doing 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.879 something you've never done before, your experimental figure. There's very 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:20.000 few actors who combined who have that threat of violence 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.520 and vulnerability at the same time as johsh does, So 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.359 I don't know who else could play the part really, uh, 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:30.040 And it was our intention to make him very complex, 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.199 to have moments where you you know, weirdly empathize with 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.880 the villain. We find that that makes for more interesting villains. 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.840 In every villain as a hero in their own story. 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:42.840 And this movie in particular is told from the point 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:44.080 of view of the villain. I mean, you go look 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:45.560 at the film and you you know, you want to 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.320 do like a traditional structure breakdown of the movie. It 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.280 all breaks down around Dan's character, not the heroes, um, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.520 which again was something we did just as a way 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:59.560 to try to keep the storytelling fresh. Um. And we 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.359 knew the have been so much build up behind this 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.000 character that we really needed to describe him as a 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.919 lot of story real estate in order for him to 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.919 become that character that everyone was expecting. And along that 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:15.040 the way we went ship let's just give him the story. Uh, 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:17.800 it just seemed like, you know, we were creating elements 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.680 around which the the the structure was breaking down around 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:25.040 him anyways, or you know, grafting onto him. So uh, 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.040 it's a unique film in that regard. And uh, and 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:30.960 you know it is. It is his story and it's 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.040 his ending. Let's talk a little bit about Chris Hemsworth 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.360 and you know, kind of allowing Thor to sort of 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:40.320 run away with this movie in a way in terms 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.919 of certainly the humor which reaches back to you know, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.840 Tayka's world and finding just kind of discovering that Thor 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.840 is is a humorous character. It can be a humorous character. 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:52.560 And I'm curious what kind of input, if any type, 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.479 might have had in this film as well. So Tycho 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:59.080 was shooting while we were shooting, and that's a massive 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.200 retne of the character. So we knew he was returning, 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.840 so we had we we asked him and we're very 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.159 close with tyka Um just on a personal level. So 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:11.680 we just asked him to come down with Hemsworth and 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.040 hang out with us in a room for a day 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:16.359 with our writer's Marcus feelings, just talk about what they 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:19.680 were doing, show us some of the dailies, uh, and 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:21.440 so we could get a sense of where he was 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.720 taking the character. Now it's still a more sobering, it's 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.440 still a more sober interpretation of Thor, but it has 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:32.359 that that element of of Ragnarok to it, that the 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:36.760 absurdest element um uh. And he certainly has his jokes 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:40.119 in the film. But for us, what we what we 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.960 loved about the character was that he was you know, 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.439 he really Thor has the hero's arc in the movie. 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:53.240 If this movie belonged to the heroes. Um uh. If 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.800 events didn't unfold the way that they did, it's it's 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:59.160 you know, it's his film to win, that Thanics's film 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:03.640 to win. Uh. And we like, again, just having grown 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.040 up on comic book characters, Or was a favorite of 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:11.399