When it comes to Marvel Studios’ films, surprisingly very few of them have directors involved in the script.
James Gunn’s “Guardians” films and Joss Whedon’s two “Avengers” are the most notable ones, while Ryan Coogler had heavy involvement in “Black Panther”. The rest have generally been penned by one or more often several people and then helmed by someone else.
That makes Chloe Zhao’s “Eternals” all that more interesting. “The Rider” and “Nomadland” director is famous for small intimate low-budget dramas with long takes and powerful character work that focuses big on humanity and raw emotion.
That’s a far cry from the MCU, especially in more recent years, which has been all about near unwieldy large casts engaging in big-budget action spectacle on a massive scale.
“Eternals” also boasts a massive cast, but whilst recently speaking with Margaret Gardiner (via The Playlist), Zhao explained the film’s script is essentially hers and the writing was very important to her:
“I am the writer on ‘Eternals,’ the credits just aren’t updated yet. I don’t know what it would be like if I didn’t write the film if I wasn’t at least a huge part of the writing process. So yeah I haven’t experienced that in my career, I’m scared of that if that happens one day.
In the writing process, that’s sort of where I bring my sensibility in, that’s a huge part of it. And creating situations that will allow certain kinds of cinematic language to come in, that is something that I’ve learned from my last three films.”
Zhao also has nothing but praise for Marvel and says they’ve both helped her through the parts of filmmaking she wasn’t familiar with, but also allowed her to keep that small scale and intimacy where she could:
“I think what Marvel has been so incredible at – Kevin [Feige] and Nate [Moore] and the whole team – they knew from the moment I pitched the film, I really wanted the scope and scale at the same time as the intimacy. They knew I wanted both.
They have been so incredible holding my hand through the entire process of allowing me to go as far as possible and as small as possible, and how that fits into the whole MCU. It’s been a pretty incredible process. You’ll have to wait and see.”
Despite the pandemic, the shoot for “Eternals” went quite smoothly by all accounts and the film will arrive in cinemas on November 5th.
