Here’s The Reason Lucrecia Martel Turned Down Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’

The amount of secrecy that Marvel Studios, and by extension, Walt Disney Studios, have that surrounds the Marvel related projects is no doubt high. More than that, the studios bring a certain set of standards and criterias for those involved, whether actors, directors, or the production team alike. Meanwhile, it’s been years since we first saw Natasha Romanoff enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Iron Man 2, and only as of recent have there been active talks of a Black Widow film that is, at last, coming to past. But director Lucrecia Martel passed on the job.

Lucrecia Martel is an Argentinian filmmaker who was once offered the opportunity by Marvel Studios to direct the upcoming Black Widow project. She was even invited to Marvel Studios’ 10th year anniversary event, but had to sign a form indicating that she couldn’t discuss said event. While Lucrecia Martel was no doubt interested in directing all aspects of the film, she revealed at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival (via The Pioneer) that Marvel Studios only wanted her for the character portions, not the action:

“What they told me in the meeting was ‘we need a female director because we need someone who is mostly concerned with the development of Scarlett Johansson’s character.’ They also told me ‘don’t worry about the action scenes, we will take care of that.’ I was thinking, well I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences.”

It makes sense. After all, if you’re going to direct the project, why wouldn’t you want to direct the action sequences as well? But as far as Lucrecia Martel is concerned, Marvel Studios still believes that when it comes to directing action sequences, that’s for the boys’ club only:

“Companies are interested in female filmmakers but they still think action scenes are for male directors. The first thing I asked them was maybe if they could change the special effects because there’s so many laser lights… I find them horrible. Also the soundtrack of Marvel films is quite horrendous. Maybe we disagree on this but it’s really hard to watch a Marvel film. It’s painful to the ears to watch Marvel films.”

Martel did later quip that she’d love to direct Black Widow if offered, but it seems that her issues with Marvel Studios extend well beyond how the studio approaches action scenes. And while Black Widow does now have a director in the form of Cate Shortland, it’s interesting to see the conditions in which acclaimed directors pass on or walk away from Marvel Studios-related projects, as we’ve seen with directors like Ava DuVernay, Edgar Wright, and Patty Jenkins, just to name a few.

But what do you think? Do you believe that Martel has a point in that the director should also direct the action scenes for a Black Widow film? And what do you make of her comments about other aspects with Marvel Studios films, such as the soundtrack and special effects? On the rare instance that a soundtrack for a Marvel Studios film is actually memorable, anyway. Let us know in the comments below.

Source: The Pioneer