While Black Panther is the next Marvel film on the slate following the release of Thor: Ragnarok, all eyes will soon be on Avengers: Infinity War. While we’ve gotten the details about the footage shown during D23 and Comic-Con, we’ve yet to see it online and the anticipation is high for the day that it will drop online. Until then, it’s all descriptions and the teases of the actors involved. Epic is the word and this Josh Brolin chat with Collider continues pounding it to the public and promising that Thanos won’t fall into the pit that all Marvel villains have ended up in to this point.
But the point that does stand out and really sells the “epic” feel for Infinity War and its sequel is that Brolin feels like The Russo Brothers aren’t hiding the fact that this is a one and done for them and Marvel Studios. It’s not that the experience has been terrible for the directing pair, but the scope of the film is just that exhausting according to Brolin:
“Look, I got Joe Russo who’s constantly resourcing like The Godfather and, ‘You have a gun to his fucking head.’ I’m like, ‘I love you so much. The fact that you’re taking an Avengers scenario and you’re turning it into a Godfather thing for us to be able to kind of hang our hat on is great, and to emotionalize the whole thing.’ I think they were very happy where they said, ‘We didn’t really realize that Thanos is going to be as complex as he is,’ and I think they were very appreciative with the stuff that we’re bringing to it. Also, I think that they’re in a position very openly and raw-ly where they’re like, ‘We would never do this again. This is a one-time deal. To put this many successful actors together is such a pain in the ass, but it’s been worth it. We’re doing two movies. One back to back, and this is it for us. Then we’ll go off in another direction,’ but this is a very, very, very ambitious project that I think is going to pay off in a big way.”
If you think back to Peter Jackson’s experience directing The Lord Of The Rings films, the planning and execution that went into them was evident and the grueling production paid off. Compare that to The Hobbit experience, where he came in to pick up the pieces from Guillermo Del Toro, you can see where the “epic” situation can both be great and part tedious exercise. Fans likely hope that Infinity War will be more the former than the latter, but it is also clear that taking on these type of projects is tough.
The way Brolin talks about how the Russos Brothers are handling Thanos lends credence to them at least aiming for this be more than just a movie stuffing everybody in front of the camera:
When playing a character like this, dude, it’s like there’s something—I don’t know any other way to put it, it really turned out to be one of the greatest experiences I’ve had. I’m still not done, but it’s been incredible to be able to work with the Russos, to be able to work with these guys. I had no idea. It’s just a different type of acting, but then when they showed me a little six-minute teaser of a scene that I had done, I was so blown away by how next-level this digital process is and how real it feels. I don’t know how I could be anything but happy. If everybody hates me at the end of it, I don’t know, will it be worth it if it’s a great movie? Maybe.”
It is definitely better to be hated in a great movie rather than be hated because you were awful in an awful movie. Given what Thanos is likely to do in the film, hated is going to be guaranteed no matter what. Hopefully, if this turns out to be the Russo Brothers final run with Marvel, it lets them go out with quality.
(Via Collider)