It’s the biggest movie of the year, a long awaited sequel that brings back some of the most beloved actors in the MCU, and has a rumored budget of $400 million. But it was filmed without a completed script.
At least that’s what co-director Joe Russo told the AP about Avengers: Doomsday.
“We always view the script as a living organism,” says Joe. “We’re improvisation-based, rehearsal-based directors. We like to see what the actors bring to the characters, and sometimes you don’t get the actors until a few days or few weeks before you shoot them. And a lot of the time, that’s when the magic happens.”
Script changes were inevitable – the fifth Avengers movie was originally set to star time-traveling Kang, until star Jonathan Majors was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. Marvel Studios then went to another better known baddie, Dr. Doom, and changed the whose trajectory of this phase.
But still, unfinished script? Are you out of your mind? In Variety’s report on Russo’s comment, they archly quoted James Gunn, who prefers a finished script prior to filming:
“I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies,” Gunn told Rolling Stone last year. “It’s not because of home screens getting so good. The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.”
You have only to peek at the discourse over Vanessa Baden Kelly’s script for Lanterns Episode 3 to see the power of a fully written script where everything has meaning – or even more than one meaning.
Doomsday’s script is credited to Marvel vets Michael Waldron, Stephen McFeely, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, so there must have been something on the page. I’m not an expert on MCU movie making, but apparently not having a finished script is business as usual for them.
The most obvious interpretation of the Russo quote is that they want to leave room for ad libbing and character development on set, not that they started shooting without knowing if Dr. Doom would win or not. So it’s not quite as bad as it sounds.
Another set of filmmaking brothers, the Duffers, actually did start shooting the end of Stranger Things without a finished script. Yes, they knew the plot outline, but pressure from Netflix, and Matt Duffer’s duties as a father of two, made it hard for them to find time to write.
On set ad libs have led to some of the greatest movie lines of all times, it is true. Reportedly, Rutger Hauer came up with his speech about attack ships on fire for the end of Blade Runner. Harrison Ford is famous for improving his characters lines throughout Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
With the Avengers cast reuniting after years of working together, it’s only natural that meeting up with an old friends from work might lead to some good interplay and scene tinkering.
That said, MCU films are ALSO famous for being shot in bits and pieces, with some actors never even seeing who they are supposed to be in a scene with – or actually being given fake scene partners to avoid blabbing secrets. Alan Cumming returns as Nightcrawler in Doomsday, but he’s had several interviews alluding to shooting his scenes all by himself: “I did the entire film in isolation… Lots of green screen, face replacement. They even gave characters fake names. I don’t know who I was acting with half the time.”
The Russo Brothers have definitely proven that they know how to make a good Avengers movie or two, and I’m sure they are used to making a billion dollar movie based on some plot points written on index cards. So we shouldn’t take the lack of a final script as a sign the movie will flop or stink. But they sure have a lot of moving pieces to play around with.
What do you think? Finish the script before shooting or no?
Avengers Doomsday open on December 18th.
My guess is the big story bits are fully scripted so they know where they have to go. And the big effects shots are also probably storyboarded because of so many people (not just performers) involved. Leaving everything else loose. At one time I would have thought that was insane but a number of huge criticality acclaimed successful films have been done that way in recent times, so obviously it works.