Eternals filmmaker Chloé Zhao debunked reports that Marvel Cinematic Universe directors don't handle the action scenes in their movies.
Zhao's comments were partly a response to an interview filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (The Headless Woman, Zama) gave in 2018, in which she said Marvel told her it would "take care" of the action scenes in Black Widow, should she sign on to direct it. “From day one, Marvel said, ‘Here are the tools we use. We need your version. We don’t want three different movies we want your movie,’” Zhao informed IndieWire. “They would be there to help me because I’ve never used these tools.”
The Oscar-winning Zhao (The Rider, Nomadland) is known for favoring realism in her low-budget work, often casting non-professional actors and shooting her movies in real-world locations with natural lighting and handheld camerawork. However, rather than abandon that approach on her MCU tentpole, Zhao said she sought to incorporate her typical filmmaking techniques into Eternals' spectacle.
“The camera is very grounded and exists in the real world even during [Eternals'] action sequences. The way the camera moves is very consistent with intimate scenes of people walking through a field," she explained. Zhao added that the movie's previs or previsualization -- the process in which filmmakers use tools like 3D animatics to visualize complex sequences ahead of production -- didn't strictly dictate the final look of Eternals' action, stating it "became something for me to explore ideas with.”
In addition to taking a hands-on-approach to Eternals' action scenes during shooting, Zhao estimated she spent "a year and a half, three times a week for a couple hours a day... sitting in front of a big screen making decisions for every detail of how visual effects could look in the real world.” Moreover, because a good chunk of the movie shot in real-world locations, those plans evolved throughout production. “When you get there a couple of days before shooting, you need to look at the weather and the space. You need to be inspired by that location,” Zhao said. “I wanted a logical way of moving the camera.”
Finally, Zhao talked about drawing influence from a variety of movies for Eternals' action and visuals, ranging from the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey to more recent sci-fi films like Blade Runner 2049 and, for one particular scene, the western thriller The Revenant. "When I talk about these movies, it’s a way for me to pay tribute to all these incredible filmmakers who shaped the way I am,” she said. “We’re not trying to be like these filmmakers or even compare to these movies.”
Eternals opens in theaters on Nov. 5.
Source: IndieWire
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