Missing that old feeling
Marvel Studios
For all its critical and box office success, Marvel Studios is notorious for flattening the voices of its directors in order to better fit their individual styles with the in-house look and tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — a homogenizing effect that Taika Waititi had to be extra wary of while directing “Thor: Ragnarok” and its sequel, “Thor: Love and Thunder.” On the plus side, his success in that arena has opened up new doors to him, allowing him to go off and work on smaller, more personal films (“Jojo Rabbit,” “Next Goal Wins”) and TV shows (“Our Flag Means Death,” “Reservation Dogs”) in-between landing high-profile gigs like directing a “Star Wars” movie.
Once again, though, joining the Marvel machine comes with its drawbacks, as Waititi told WIRED:
“I do miss the feeling where I was excited to wake up and write. So much of what I do now is associated with deadlines and with people wanting something from me. And then it starts to feel like you’re just sitting in traffic waiting to go to work.”
What Waititi’s talking about here is a hard truth that filmmakers inevitably have to face after their early success paves the way to them tackling bigger projects, only to discover just how exhausting the grind really is when you’re no longer working on a movie with a bunch of your friends and what little (well, “little”) money you can scrap together. But again, that you can tell the person who directed “Eagle vs Shark” all those years ago is the same one who made “Thor: Ragnarok” just goes to show: Waititi has done as fine a job as any at navigating the treacherous waters that are the Hollywood studio system.
“Thor: Love and Thunder” hits theaters July 8, 2022.
Joining The Marvel Machine Had Some Downsides For Taika Waititi
Marvel Studios
By Sandy Schaefer/June 23, 2022 5:41 pm EST
It’s a testament to his skill as an artist that Waititi has been able to maintain the same humorous and playful yet bittersweet style from project to project, be they his low-budget directorial efforts (“Boy,” “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” “Jojo Rabbit”) or even something like the series “Our Flag Means Death” (which he mainly works on as an actor and producer). Waititi was even able to hold onto a lot of his personality when he entered the well-oiled machine that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” delivering a zany, visually-imaginative, and otherwise enjoyable outing with the God of Thunder.
Missing that old feeling
For all its critical and box office success, Marvel Studios is notorious for flattening the voices of its directors in order to better fit their individual styles with the in-house look and tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — a homogenizing effect that Taika Waititi had to be extra wary of while directing “Thor: Ragnarok” and its sequel, “Thor: Love and Thunder.” On the plus side, his success in that arena has opened up new doors to him, allowing him to go off and work on smaller, more personal films (“Jojo Rabbit,” “Next Goal Wins”) and TV shows (“Our Flag Means Death,” “Reservation Dogs”) in-between landing high-profile gigs like directing a “Star Wars” movie.
Once again, though, joining the Marvel machine comes with its drawbacks, as Waititi told WIRED:
“I do miss the feeling where I was excited to wake up and write. So much of what I do now is associated with deadlines and with people wanting something from me. And then it starts to feel like you’re just sitting in traffic waiting to go to work.”
What Waititi’s talking about here is a hard truth that filmmakers inevitably have to face after their early success paves the way to them tackling bigger projects, only to discover just how exhausting the grind really is when you’re no longer working on a movie with a bunch of your friends and what little (well, “little”) money you can scrap together. But again, that you can tell the person who directed “Eagle vs Shark” all those years ago is the same one who made “Thor: Ragnarok” just goes to show: Waititi has done as fine a job as any at navigating the treacherous waters that are the Hollywood studio system.
“Thor: Love and Thunder” hits theaters July 8, 2022.
Once again, though, joining the Marvel machine comes with its drawbacks, as Waititi told WIRED:
What Waititi’s talking about here is a hard truth that filmmakers inevitably have to face after their early success paves the way to them tackling bigger projects, only to discover just how exhausting the grind really is when you’re no longer working on a movie with a bunch of your friends and what little (well, “little”) money you can scrap together. But again, that you can tell the person who directed “Eagle vs Shark” all those years ago is the same one who made “Thor: Ragnarok” just goes to show: Waititi has done as fine a job as any at navigating the treacherous waters that are the Hollywood studio system.
“I do miss the feeling where I was excited to wake up and write. So much of what I do now is associated with deadlines and with people wanting something from me. And then it starts to feel like you’re just sitting in traffic waiting to go to work.”
“Thor: Love and Thunder” hits theaters July 8, 2022.
