Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
DGA QUARTERLY 43 PHOTO: CHUCK ZLOTNICK/MARVEL STUDIOS like, "Yeah, we want it to look like shit. It's a mockumentary." The language is already out there. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! We were like, "This will be a reality TV show as a comedy." J: The aesthetic of that is inspired by Man Bites Dog, the whole no- tion of a documentary team following around a family the same way they did a serial killer in that movie. That was a favorite film of ours. If you watch the two back-to-back, you'll see the influences. Q: What about when you directed the pilot for Community? A: Well, our jumping-off point was John Hughes. We very much felt like there was a texture, a spirit of that in the essence of the pilot. Then, of course, that show went on to become more an exploration of genre and style. J: The idea was then to shift the look of the show almost on a week- ly basis. There's a thriller episode, an action episode, a Lord of the Rings episode, the cartoon episode. Q: Perhaps that versatility is what Marvel noticed when they tapped you to make Captain America: The Winter Soldier? J: Kevin Feige had seen the paintball episode in the second season, which was a spoof of Sergio Leone, another influence of ours. Kevin probably watched that episode and said, "These guys understand action, and they're really funny." A: We just got a call out of the blue from our agent, who said, "Hey, Marvel's got a list of 10 directors they want to talk to about the next Captain America movie, and you guys are on it." J: I have a $70,000 collection of comic books in my closet. These were very impor- tant stories to me as a kid. A: But it was hard for us to win the movie. We went through a series of four meetings with them over the course of two months. I would say Joe and I spent about 90% of our time in those two months prepping for these movies. We wrote pages, we did story- boards, we came up with a mock trailer, pulled tonal images… by the end of the two months, when we finally won the job, we knew exactly how we were making the movie. Q: What did Marvel respond to? J: We've always appreciated experimental filmmaking. And this is a giant experiment, to take this many characters in this many franchises and try to tell an interwoven mosaic over a decade? It sounds insane. Conceptually it's turned out to be the most success- ful experiment in movie history. But we always preach that you have to keep surprising the audience tonally, or they're going to get ahead of you. That's why Winter Soldier is so drastically differ- ent from the first Captain America. We said, we have a logical reset here. The character's been frozen in ice for 70 years, he wakes up, and everything he knew was gone. So we can go on a very interest- ing existential journey with that character. We're guys who grew up on foreign films, so thematics are important to us. You have to CONTINUED ON PAGE 78 Above, from left, Joe and Anthony Russo give direction to Scar- lett Johansson, who plays Black Widow, on Avengers: Infinity War.