Photos: The Independent and Indie Lisboa
Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, notable for her art-house films such as Zama, The Holy Girl, and The Headless Woman, says Marvel told her not to worry about the action sequences in Black Widow.
During a meeting in which the two sides discussed the possibility of Martel directing the upcoming film, Martel says Marvel didn’t expect her to film those scenes.
“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,’” Martel said. “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.’”
Martel also shared her thoughts on Marvel movies in general.
“Companies are interested in female filmmakers, but they still think action scenes are for male directors,” Martel said. “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.”
The directorial job for Black Widow eventually went to Cate Shortland, with the film rumored for a release sometime in 2020.