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It is the age of the film universe and it is the Marvel Studios that brought the Big Bang. In 2008, the then reduced film production of comic book publisher Marvel Enterprises implemented a plan that its chairman, Kevin Feige, had been thinking about for a while. Previously, all of Marvel's character-based movies had been produced by other studios: X-Men at Fox, Spider-Man at Sony.
But when their first self-financing project, Iron Man unexpectedly came in at $ 100 million on the weekend of its opening, Feige announced that the studio was immediately starting work on a sequel. movies featuring Captain America and Thor, two more extras from the list of publishers then appearing on the B list, accompanied by an already completed photo, Incredible Hulk, which will be released in two months.
The plot of The Avengers: Endgame is a secret so well kept that even its cast claims to not know how it goes together. [19659005] "I remember being excited by the idea that people would understand that we were going to interconnect the m and, like, everyone else was making fun of it," Feige says today. 45 years old and dressed as a successful producer: dark gray polo shirt, navy blue suit jacket, branded baseball cap. "The story tells the success of Iron Man and at the end, it was "Oh, now they'll try that." "
Eleven years later, it evolved into the wonder of Cinematic Universe, a series of 21 interlocking blockbuster movies that did not run neatly like sequels, but came from every angle like the original comics, each with new stars, new conspiracies, surprises and even worlds.The formula was so successful – the movies even tend to appeal to critics, especially this one – that recipes gl At present, US $ 18.5 billion is the gross domestic product of the European Union.
A Great Mosaic
Joe Russo, a devotee of Marvel Studios who, along with his brother Anthony, directed four of Marvel's films, including the latter, describes this scene as "a great mosaic – 11 dealerships that were "For Feige's first lead actor, Robert Downey Jr., aka Iron Man, it's" the coolest relay race in the history of entertainment. "
But the 22nd film is about to do something new: erase the slate. After the catastrophic fall of Thanos that swept half of all life in the universe at the end of of last year, The Avengers: Infinity War The Plot of Endgame is a secret so well kept, even its flowing pretending not to know how it still goes together. "It's been a long time since I've worked so you know you have to trust the machine," says Paul Rudd, aka Ant-Man. One thing is certain, though. Some of Rudd's co-stars, and perhaps the four main Avengers – Downey Jr's Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Chris Evans' Captain America and Mark Ruffalo's Incredible Hulk – will not be back for movie 23.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. Photo: AP
The cast brought together actors at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to bid farewell to a franchise that spawned envious imitators in every other studio in the city, with more or less less successful (Lucasfilm tried to apply it to Star Wars, with his plans Han Solo and Death Star). There is a strange atmosphere in the room: conversation halfway, I often feel like being woken up. As Ruffalo says, "we all speak as if we are dead." [19659005] On its release, Endgame is expected to raise at least $ 1 billion in box office revenues in the coming weeks: far from the modest goals set by the studio for 2008, that Feige described pretty much as before. Marvel C-list projects such as The Fantastic Four Daredevil and Elektra.
It is worth remembering that these characters seemed too bizarre for their great success just ten years ago: Hemsworth was privately asking himself on the set of Thor "if this thing would even go to cinema, in the past, on DVD ". That's only when the first film Avengers topped the billion dollar mark in 2012 – "the first of our Disney films was released, and the largest ever produced up to Star Wars: The Awakening of the Force "Feige notes, with a hint of pride – that the actors realized that this nerdy reverie had become a megalith of pop culture.
The last word of Stan Lee
The basics were prepared by Marvel more than half a century ago. a stable of comic book writers and artists, who imagined these last-day box office giants in Marvel's offices at Madison Avenue, known as Bullpen's affectionate name. The first of these was Stan Lee, whose death last November at the age of 95 marked the end of an era just as much as the last appearance on the screen. Avengers.
Lee's last conversation with Lee took place two weeks before his death: he "was on things to come, and his enthusiasm for what was to come". Feige plans to go out under the Marvel banner between 2020 and 2022 ", and what I meant was the characters – what was the intent when they were created, and how we could be able to improve it But Lee's spirit was elsewhere. "All he wanted to talk about was his cameos," Feige laughs. Lee appeared in the manner of Alfred Hitchbad in almost all Marvel-based films since the 2000s X-Men and he had already established a list of variants for future editions.
"For me, cameos have always seemed to be the icing on the cake of this incredible career," says Feige. "But I've since realized that for him they represented something more – I think it's because he was able to stand alongside those characters that he had co-wrote. created on a much bigger stage than he had planned.I mean, these movies are bigger than I would ever have imagined.I can only imagine how that was going to happen. for him. "The film is released in the world.
"Once cross-pollination started, it was like," Oh, this thing could go on, "says Don Cheadle, who joined the franchise in 2010 as a loyal Iron Man winger. War Machine. . Ruffalo nods. "This first film Avengers surpbaded everything I thought it was going to do, and since then I've always said:" When will the piano go down? ? ", He said, looking anxiously upward. . "So I think it's wise for them to have a finality, finish on a positive note."
Diversity of Heroes
The franchise has recently been at the forefront of the selection of increasingly diverse heroes on screen, although the fact that Marvel has caused a wider cultural shift or that it follows the rhythm remains debatable. But the changing tastes of the last decade are reflected in the franchise, especially in its attitude towards women.
At the unrepaired time of 2010, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow fulfilled an essentially decorative function: there were scenes in Iron Man 2 stripping away at the lighthouse. back of a limousine and Downey Jr Tony Stark flipping through approving his shots in lingerie. Johansson describes her as "a kind of glorified bady secretary, who possessed all these skills aside, but by Avengers 2 she was now part of the group dynamic."
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow / Natasha Romanoff of Marvel. Photo: Jay Maidment
Given that recent female additions, from Captain Marvel of Brie Larson to Okoye of Danai Gurira, have been able to arrive more fully trained, does she regret that? "That's how it was supposed to be at that moment," Johansson shrugs.
"That was what could be accepted, and then the audience, the fans, obviously playing an important role in this on-screen diversity movement, became more vocal – people had more means of expressing themselves on what they wanted to see, and they wanted to see their own life reflected on the screen, their own ideals and aspirations.Sometimes it was like we were playing a catch-up game .
Next step
Disney's recent acquisition of Fox helped bring the latter's mini-Marvel portfolio back to the mother ship, which means Feige now has Fantastic Four and X -Men, including Deadpool ,. However, any internal reboot is "far from the account": the next phase of the releases is a mix of suites, new characters from the safe Marvel and perhaps "versions of some characters already introduced". It is believed that the kung-fu master Shang-Chi and the Eternals who tour the cosmos are among the new recruits.
Sorry, who? Eleven years ago, many would have asked Black Panther, Captain Marvel and the Guardians of the Galaxy the same question, but that did not stop them from raising more than $ 1 billion each. If this universe has an advantage, it has not yet appeared. The Telegraph, United Kingdom
- Avengers: Endgame from April 24th.
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