Home Media Magazine - Agent DVD - July 2008 - (Page DVD20) *COMICFILES MARVEL MAN Q&A BY CRAIG MODDERNO s editor in chief of Marvel Comics and a consultant on Marvel Studios films, Joe Quesada has an insider’s seat on the direction of the movies based on the characters he oversees. With The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man scoring at the box office, Quesada shares some of the secrets of Marvel’s success. A Agent DVD: What role does Marvel Comics have in the production of Marvel Studios’ movies? Quesada: Do you mean outside of creating the source material or the road map for our movies? Well, therein lies one of the secrets to why these first two Marvel Studios movies are being met with such overwhelming success and joy from fans everywhere. There has been this ongoing and growing synergy within Marvel as a company, and that has certainly been extended into our movie division. Agent DVD: How do you think the Iron Man adaptation compares to the comic? Quesada: I think it’s a beautiful amalgam of the very best of what’s appeared within our books since the early 1960s and is 100% true to the character of Tony Stark. There’s a reason these characters have passed the test of time and have become household names and icons. Knowing that, you have to assume that there’s nothing truly broken, in need of fixing or touch up, and that to me is the beauty of the Iron Man movie. [Director Jon] Favreau embraced it all while also making it his own and created what I believe will be the prototype for future action-adventure movies. Agent DVD: Which big screen adaptations do you think worked well, and which do you think missed the mark? Quesada: I think ultimately, pound for pound, most of the Marvel movies worked reasonably well. Yes, there are some that are better than others, but let’s just say that there wasn’t a Catwoman among them. Agent DVD: What did you think of the animated movies from Lionsgate — Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2, Invincible Iron Man and Doctor Strange? Quesada: I thought they were a lot of fun. I especially liked the Iron Man one. AGENTDVD THE INCREDIBLE HULK BY FRED TOPEL BULKING UP ON EXTRAS FOR s The Incredible Hulk smashed into theaters, Louis Leterrier was already working on the home video versions. The director plans to take advantage of Blu-ray Disc’s massive storage capacity by adding 70 minutes of deleted scenes. “I’m like, OK, you student filmmakers, here’s what I did right, and here’s what I did wrong,” Leterrier says. “In the 70 minutes, there’s some great stuff, and there’s some really horrible stuff, but you’ll see it all.” The new scenes include a sequence in the Arctic that was to open the film, and character scenes between Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) and Betty Ross’s new boyfriend (Ty Burrell). “You see the Ty Burrell character having a nice introspective talk with Edward,” Leterrier says. “It was a long scene to give us an excuse to get that cool punchline in the trailer. Burrell says, ‘Maybe you should see a shrink,’ and he says, ‘No, you haven’t seen a patient like me.’” Leterrier is not planning a longer cut of the film. Instead, he will use the deleted scenes as bonus materials for Universal’s eventual home video version. A “I think Louis is very happy with the film that was released,” says producer Gale Anne Hurd. Leterrier’s film was intended to reboot the “Hulk” franchise after Ang Lee’s 2003 version. “It’s like the backstory,” he says. “It’s more the sequel to the Ang Lee movie.” Leterrier and Hurd are preparing several behind-the-scenes featurettes. “You’ll be able to tour the art department,” Hurd says. “You’ll be able to see Louis [Leterrier] and Edward [Norton] acting out sequences, while Edward was actually doing a revision of the screenplay so that he could incorporate those beats into the screenplay (Norton was an uncredited writer on the script). You’ll see the state-of-the-art Mova technology that was used so that both Tim Roth and Edward Norton’s facial capture could actually inform the performance of their alter egos of Hulk and Abomination.” There’s even a special feature on going green, figuratively rather than literally. “I think there’s even one about the environmental choices that we made in the film to try to make it not only with a big green character, but as green as possible behind the scenes,” Hurd says. AGENTDVD JULY 2008 19 AgentDVD.com http://agentdvd.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.