Directors Joseph and Anthony Russo, the mass murderers of my beloved superhero children, held a Q&A session following a screening of Avengers: Infinity War in Los Angeles. We have the highlights, annotated by my reactions to said highlights.
/Film’s editor Peter Sciretta was in attendance at “An Evening With the Russo Brothers” and did the One-Above-All god’s work in live-tweeting the event. You can visit /Film’s Twitter feed for a full run-down of the Russos’ commentary; I’m looking to the tweets most of interest to me and my emotional state.
First off the bat, many of us thought that the long-awaited Avengers 4 trailer might drop at this event. The trailer has been so strongly rumored to see the light of day this week that quite a few sites (including this one) have posted speculation about what it will contain, while other sites have articles like “Things You Can Do While Waiting for the Avengers 4 Trailer to Drop.” In short, we’re getting antsy.
The Russo Brothers said they would not be answering any Avengers 4 questions or trailer questions.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
No such luck, because Joe and Anthony delight in playing Cat’s Cradle with the strings of my heart. The Russos flat-out refused to answer questions about Avengers 4 or its trailer, going so far as to show that they would employ an air horn app in case the topic was mentioned.
Listen, my dudes, I get some amount of secrecy and build-up, but this is getting completely ridiculous. Throw us some frickin’ bones, we’re starving here.
Onward:
The Russo’s joked that the only way they would return to making superhero movies after Avengers 4 is if they can make Secret Wars.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Secret Wars? SECRET WARS? Hahahhahahahhahaha. Please let us just finish this one Infinity War before joking about filming a cinematic event that would dominate the next ten years of my life. I’m so very tired.
They did three drafts of the film, one draft had Thanos as the narrator of the film and was non Linus’s in structure and had backstories for the Black order. That script was 250 pages. Writing out Thanos narration gave them insight on the character even though it didn’t make it.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—sorry, I mean, Tony, Maria, and Howard—thank you to all that is holy that we did not have to sit through Thanos: My Story. A Thanos-narrated version of this movie would have made it completely insufferable.
They had a draft of the script where Thanos had already secured the power stone but it felt like he had too many to start. So they instead decided to open with the attack on the ship, in the middle of his attack and plan.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
I mean, who doesn’t love the slaughter of refugees and fan favorites to set the initial mood? Thanos is a bad guy! Really bad! He means business! Who cares about a little movie called Thor: Ragnarok that gave a noble people who lost their homeworld a glimmer of hope about the future? Thanos is the biggest bad guy in the MCU’s history and he’s super-duper-important even though we’ve never really had to care about him until this VERY OPENING MOMENT! We’re not kidding around! Death to Asgard because of these reasons!
Thanos was able to beat The Hulk in the beginning not because of the power stone but because he was smarter and more calculated.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Robert Bruce Banner, M.D., Ph.D. has seven Ph.D.s but, uh, sure, okay.
They tried to plus the scene with Pepper and Tony, they shot a new scene in additional photography at the Starkhome with Tony sitting in a lawn chair fidgeting with Steve’s flip phone and Pepper comes home but it didn’t work out so they didn’t include it.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
In an exclusive scoop, I managed to get my hands on the dialogue from this cut scene.
PEPPER POTTS: Honey, just call him. I know you miss him.
TONY STARK: [stoically] I could never use a flip phone.
PEPPER: It’s okay, Tony. We’re in an open relationship for a reason. And that reason is a tall blond drink of ice water named Steve Rogers.
TONY: [gazes down at the cheap plastic chair he is sitting in despite his billions, tearing up] Steve loved lawn chairs, you know. They didn’t have lawn chairs like this in the 1930s. My father invented lawn chairs.
PEPPER: [goes back inside]
On how they got the Avengers 3/4 gig the Russo’s joked that they had to wrestle Joss Whedon: “there’s two of us, it lasted 12 seconds.”
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
I would sign my soul away to Lady Death for a live stream of this match—it’s not so cut-and-dry as they’d like to imply. Joss would put up a fight consisting primarily of snarky, cutting insults that the Russos would try and counter with sarcastic comebacks from their Arrested Development era and everyone would end up in tears.
Josh Brolin looked ridiculous on set, wearing a black and white and green pajamas with tracking ping pong balls all over it and a face tracking rig. There is a pole strapped to his back so that other actors can look up at the pole for the eye-line.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Thanos looked ridiculous in this movie, lumbering around spouting pseudo-environmentalist fascist crap to justify genocide and the abuse and murder of his children and, later, half of the children in the entire galaxy. Not a great look even with CGI in place.
Is Stormbreaker more powerful than the Infinity Gauntlet? Thanos didn’t know what was coming his way and if he did he would have been able to use the stones to better react to Stormbreaker.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Sorry but did Thanos have to channel the power of a dying star through his lilac body in order to gain the Infinity Gauntlet? Really, what terrible trials did he actually have to undergo in order to get that thing beyond killing people and “sacrificing” Gamora, who despised him? Like, at least make him pick out the cup of a carpenter from a fabulous glittering array of goblets or something first. This was all a little too easy.
Star Lord imitating Thor was actually something in the script and not improv’d on set.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
The screenwriters actually did something right here. Probably because the scene had nothing to do with Thanos.
Red Skull has been on a journey since the events of Captain America. He is now a space to the stones, he is a ghost. They played around with it not being him but they kept coming back to it being Red Skull. The screenwriters, who wrote First Avenger, fought for it.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
This is okay because Nazis suffering forever in the distant reaches of outer space is awesome and should also be established Twitter policy.
They talked about involving the Netflix Marvel characters in Infinity War, but they say it was too complicated to correlate story between not only the other marvel films in production but also the tv productions. They decided the best way to tell the story was to keep it MCU.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
They were smart in this regard and possessed of the incredible gift of foresight that 3/4 of the Netflix Marvel characters would have no shows to go back to after they returned from the War.
The Russo’s were asked about a fan theory that Bruce Banner is really Loki in disguise. They answered. That “Loki is dead.”
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
“I’ve been dead before and that never stopped me, bitches.” —Loki Odinson’s epitaph
They explored other ideas for the final shot but Thanos smiling at the sunset was an idea they came to very early on when the writers realized it was Thanos’ movie. He was serving an idea larger than himself, and that’s why Thanos is a hero in his own mind.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
I’m so very, very, very tired.
As fans and not directors, the Russo Brothers would have saved Peter Parker if they could have saved any of the characters who were dusted.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
This is mean and you know it.
The Russo Brothers always knew which characters in Infinity War they wanted to be dusted at the end of the film.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
This is even more mean.
Joe Russo’s favorite moment of Infinity War is Thor’s arrival in Wakanda.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Joe Russo can live when I finally get my hands on the Infinity Gauntlet.
Anthony Russo loves the emotional moment where Wanda is forced to destroy Vision’s stone.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Anthony Russo, a monster, will be Snaptured.
Asked about the possibility of Latino characters in the MCU, the Russo Brothers say they don’t want to spoil anything but they think we’ll find the MCU will continue to diversify.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
MARVEL FANS: Could we maybe have more diversity and representation of significant demographics of people—
MARVEL STUDIOS: NO SPOILERS!!!
If there is a Winter Soldier and Falcon spin-off tv series for Disney + streaming service, the Russo Brothers aren’t involved.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
If? IF??????
According to the Russo’s, Marvel is looking for directors to come in with a strong point of view that is different from what they are thinking.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Listen, Marvel, I know we have our differences, but it sounds like that’s what you’re claiming to look for. Great! So consider this: hire me. I haven’t directed anything since the five-minute abstract video made for my freshman film analysis class, but I guarantee my vision of a wildly diverse, women-at-the-forefront, incredibly queer MCU is like nothing you’ve thought about before.
The Soul Stone has the ability to manipulate your soul and your essence of who you are. Thanks uses the Soul Stone to pull Strange out of his own body when he’s multiple Stranges. Thanos also uses the soul stone to talk to his dead daughter.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
We knew this about the Soul Stone but I’d just like to take this opportunity to point out that “Thanks” is autocorrect’s hilarious way of continuing to punish us for Thanos’ existence.
The Russo Brothers partly credit being dungeon masters playing Dungeons and Dragons as a kids for how they attained their storytelling abilities. Att: @JacobSHall
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
OK, I am officially friends with the Russo brothers again, and both of them can live.
An example of a fake scene The Russo Brothers wrote to keep Infinity War secrecy, Gamora threw Thanos off the cliff in the Soul Stone sequence. I’m not even sure if they are kidding.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
I spoke too soon. They are dead to me since this scene does not exist.
In Infinity War, Thanos says that all the children on Gamoras planet eat well after the purge but in Guardians, Gamora says she was the last of her race. The Russo Brothers were asked about this nitpick and they responded “Who do you believe? Do you believe Thanos or Gamora?”
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
GAMORA. WE BELIEVE GAMORA. I AM SHOCKED AND AMAZED THAT THANOS’ UNHINGED THEORY ABOUT RESOURCES DID NOT PROVE CORRECT IN PAST APPLICATIONS.
Guardians 3 being put on indefinite hold did not change the Russo Brothers approach for Avengers 4 and where it leaves the Guardians because they had already finished shooting the movie.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Fair.
Someone asked how much time has gone by from the climax of the film and Thanos on the farm in the final shot. Joe just responded “hhmmmmmmmmmmmm” and that’s all.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Hhmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Joe says “it would be nice to make a film about one character” lol
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
As long as that character isn’t Thanos.
(via Peter Sciretta on Twitter, /Film, images: Marvel Studios)
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Published: Nov 29, 2018 12:47 pm