Alright fanboys, your wish is granted. Joss Whedon is in final negotiations to direct The Avengers movie, scheduled to come out May 2012. Now remember, these are still negotiations, but if he’s hired, the creator of Buffy, Firefly and other geek-fare will helm the most eagerly anticipated comic book movie since The Dark Knight. And I’m… ok with this? To be honest, I never really got into Whedon’s work. I liked his run on Runaways, but never got into Buffy and missed Firefly and Serenity entirely. Still, I’m willing to give him a chance. He’s ten times a better pick than Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) or Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk), the other directors rumoured to direct this thing.
Oh, and did you know there’s a “lost” Stanley Kubrick script in the works? According to cinematical.com, a treatment written by pulp writer Jim Thompson at the behest of Kubrick entitled Lunatic at Large was found amongst Kubrick’s belongings by his son-in-law after the director’s death. It’s being put into production and has Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson attached to star.
Set in New York in 1956, it tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, a former carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up in a Hopperesque tavern scene.
(Someone will have to tell me what Hopperesque means)
No word on a director or if another screenwriter has made any changes to it, but it’ll be intriguing to see how it turns out. Hopefully they’ll use plenty of extremely tight close-ups of intensely emotional faces, a Kubrick trademark.
