Joss Whedon to Direct The Avengers

[Midnite]

Joss Whedon to Direct The Avengers

. . .The site says he is now in final negotiations to helm the action adventure scheduled for a May 4, 2012 release. . .

[Talavar]

Hmmmm......

I'm not sure how I feel about this yet.  Whedon as a writer I like quite a bit, generally.  Whedon as a director is less of a known quantity - while he's directed lots of episodes of his various shows, the only film he's directed was Serenity, which I wasn't crazy about (loved Firefly the series, lukewarm on the movie personally).

It's an interesting choice, any way - if this does pan out.  It's not exactly official yet, from the sound of things.

[BWPS]

What? Why him?

[lugaru]

I would have prefered if they went with another relative unknown (to the mainstream) director who made one or two awesome movies on a low budget (see Brian Singer, Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, etc) but hey, whatever, at least it is not Kevin Smith.

Seriosly though I think Whedon has a good eye for action on a budget and for developing characters but I've never loved his dialog. Also as said before, he thinks in terms of TV BUT I'm sure Marvel will make his perspective switch to wide screen once he checks out the budget.

[Mr. Hamrick]

One thing working in Whedon's favor is that he has experience with ensemble casts. 

A few things not working in his favor:

his lack of experience directing
his reputation, will he be able to attract "mainstream audiences"?  As in "non-Whedonites" or whatever they are called?
it's a largely male cast with characters established in their own films previously.  While it wouldn't be a problem for him in a comic, film is a whole other genre.

[Talavar]

I don't think 'The Avengers' will need Joss Whedon's reputation or name recognition to draw in mainstream audiences; providing that Iron Man 2, Captain America and Thor are any good, there's all the draw you're going to need. 

And let's be honest, most of the people who saw Iron Man didn't go because it was directed by Jon Favreau, or to the Dark Knight because it was directed by Christopher Nolan (conversely, X-men 3 wasn't avoided as it should have been, despite being directed by Brett Ratner).

That said, I'm not really feeling this.  I hope Whedon will do a good job, and avoid some of his more obvious crutches.

[Podmark]

Well remember that directing does not equal writing the story.
If he is the director I can only hope for the best.

[Previsionary]

Joss Whedon fired?!

[BentonGrey]

Joss Whedon fired?!

Hah.

[Talavar]

In actual news, in addition to directing Avengers, it seems Whedon is re-writing both the Avengers and the Captain America movie.  Discuss.

[docdelorean88]

I loved firefly/serenity, and enjoyed dollhouse, and found dr horrible hilarious. But Joss Whedon has a way of making me really happy with one work, then ticking me off with another.