‘Avengers: Endgame’ Almost Included A Thor-Jane Reunion And A Strange Rocket

Encounter

Avengers: Endgame clocked in at 182 minutes, so it came as some relief to learn

that, yes, the Russo Brothers did delete some scenes that would have made the
runtime even longer. In addition, some scenes (including one that showed Tony Stark
speaking with his adult daughter) simply didn’t fit the rhythm of the movie, or
ended up on the cutting-room floor for other reasons. Losing Baby Thanos, for
example, was certainly a solid move because that was some Bird Box-monster-level
hideousness. That nightmare was revealed in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame: The Art of
the Movie, as was word of a reunion between Thor and Jane Foster, who also had to
cope with a certain trash panda. Of course, we’ll eventually see Thor and Jane
together again (or perhaps not-together again) in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and
Thunder, but ComicBook has the details on how the two former lovers almost came
face to face again while Thor was time-traveling to Asgard. Yep, that’s when an
emotional (and bread-loving) Thor spoke with his mother, and Jane briefly flashed
onto the screen at a different moment. So there was no actual meeting between them,
but apparently, that was part of the initial plan. The coffee-table-esque book of
drawings also shows Rocket Raccoon doing something bizarre next to Jane. Is he
simply annoying the heck out of her? It almost looks like he’s threatening to spank
her, so I really don’t know. Judge for yourself on what’s going on, and maybe
someone can find a clue about Love and Thunder. (Via ComicBook.com)

Avengers: Endgame Writers Explain Why Tony Stark Had To Die

Who lives? Who dies? That is the power of a screenwriter. Avengers: Endgame writers
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been pulling back the veil in the wake
of the MCU movie's record-breaking release. Now that the movie is on Disney+ --
including a new scene -- fans are watching it again and studying every detail. Most
fans knew going into Avengers 4 that actors Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were
planning to end their Marvel contracts with Endgame. But it wasn't clear how their
stories would end, or even if they would end. Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher
Markus and Stephen McFeely were asked why it was important that the story had a
definitive end -- that Tony Stark died vs Steve Rogers getting to go have a full
life with Peggy Carter? Here's how Christopher Markus answered Vanity Fair's
question: Stephen McFeely got more specific on Steve and Tony's very different
story arcs culminating in Avengers: Endgame: Well put. Tony Stark initiated the MCU
with Iron Man in 2008. Watching him learn how to be selfless, ending with his
sacrifice the save the universe -- it was a beautiful thing to behold.
Heartbreaking, but beautiful and very much earned. Captain America was the
character many fans expected to have a heroic death in Avengers: Endgame. A few
months ago, co-director Joe Russo explained why killing Cap would've been a step
too far: I don't know if Marvel fans would've walked out into traffic if Steve
Rogers died ... although, maybe. There were some huge emotional responses after
Avengers: Endgame came out. Black Widow was the other major OG Avenger death of the
film, and the Endgame writers recently revealed one regret about how that played
out. Choosing to give Tony Stark/Iron Man that Avengers: Endgame story arc allowed
Robert Downey Jr. to do some of his best acting in the MCU. Joe Russo made an
impassioned argument for why RDJ deserves an Oscar for his performance. We'll have
to wait and see if RDJ is nominated, or just loved 3000 forever by loyal fans.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ DP Trent Opaloch on the Challenge of Crafting That Final Battle

Creating one of the biggest (eventually highest-grossing) films of all time on any
level is a daunting challenge, but imagine being the person responsible for the
look of it all—for turning those millions of dollars worth of stars and sets and
VFX into actual images captured inside a camera. That was the task afforded
cinematographer Trent Opaloch on Avengers: Endgame, but while he knew he was in for
a daunting ride in shooting Infinity War and Endgame back-to-back, he was also well
aware that he had one of the best support systems in the world. Opaloch’s
collaboration with directors Joe and Anthony Russo began on Captain America: The
Winter Soldier, and oddly enough Opaloch was almost more excited to meet the
directors of Arrested Development than he was to shoot a Marvel superhero movie.
Their work together on that film brought a grounded, gritty aesthetic to the MCU,
and when Opaloch was called to once again collaborate with “the brothers,” as he
calls them, on Captain America: Civil War, he couldn’t pass up the chance to work
with Iron Man himself. So by the time Opaloch received the offer to shoot Infinity
War and Endgame, he had already solidified a great working relationship with the
Russos, become familiar with the process of making a Marvel movie, and unbeknownst
to him, had been working his way up, step-wise, to the herculean challenge of
crafting a conclusion to the Marvel Cinematic Universe story. I recently got the
chance to speak with Opaloch by phone about his work on Endgame, and he discussed
his working relationship with the Russo Brothers and how they set about crafting
Infinity War and Endgame as two distinct films. He also went into detail about
shooting the epic Endgame finale, and the unique challenges that a movie like this
presented regarding actor availability and having to shoot massive sequences in
pieces over the course of months. Check out the full interview below. If for some
insane reason you still haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame, it’s currently available to
stream on Disney+ or to purchase via Blu-ray, DVD, or Digital HD. Photo by Chuck
Zlotnick©Marvel Studios 2019 What was your first reaction when Joe and Anthony
first brought you on board for both Endgame and Infinity War, and then kind of how
quickly did you realize this was going to be one of the biggest undertakings in
pretty much cinema history? TRENT OPALOCH: Well, it’s funny. The whole thing
started with The Winter Soldier, right, with the brothers. And the first time I
ever met them, I was such a fan of Arrested Development that I was like a fanboy
with them at our first meeting. Then their pitch for Winter Soldier, I was never
really a comic book guy when I was a kid, and so their pitch for The Winter Soldier
I thought was really cool in that they wanted to bring it down to reality, and get
really gritty, and a little bit more realistic than some of the films had been
handled in the past. And so I’m game for it. I was sort of seduced by their pitch
and by who they are as just individuals. They’re great guys. And that’s always a
really good experience for me. And then they asked me to do Civil War, I sort of
thought like when I did Winter Soldier, I was like, okay, that’s great. I’ll do a
comic book movie and go back to whatever. When they asked me to do Civil War, I was
such a fan of the Tony Stark Iron Man character, and I really enjoyed the previous
Iron Man films, that to me I was kind of like, oh, it’s almost like doing an
Avengers movie. You know? And the scale was really quite big, and I was kind of
excited with some of the preliminary ideas that they had for that film, and so I
took that on as a challenge in that it was unlike anything I’d ever done before,
and I was kind of really excited. And then, I don’t know. I was at a hockey game in
San Jose during the playoffs when I got the call from Joe. I mean that was the
official call. “Hey, we want you on board.” And it was cool, but it was pretty
daunting. You know that that’s going to be three years of your life. And that’s one
thing I really struggle with films is that I have all these hobbies and interests
outside of filmmaking and you put all of that on pause when you go to a movie for
six months to a year or whatever, and you leave your friends and family, and you
kind of go on the road with that film. So it’s a big responsibility to accept the
film. But it was the same thing. The idea of making those two movies, that would be
very challenging, but to make them with Joe and Anthony and the rest of the Marvel
family, you just sort of know what’s in store, you know what the overall experience
is going to be like. So as big and daunting as the scale is, it’s sort of like
you’ve got the best selection of human beings around you to make it happen. So it’s
a way more pleasurable than you think the experience could be. You know? Image via
Marvel Studios Yeah well and at this point I would imagine there’s a pretty huge
support system at Marvel there as well. I mean, they’ve kind of got it down to a
science of how to make these movies while still allowing for creative freedom. But
if there’s a problem or issue it seems like they pretty much have an answer every
time. OPALOCH: Yeah. I mean, that’s a very interesting perspective, as well, to be
on the inside for those conversations, and to see that workflow, to see how that
all happened is pretty impressive. A lot of that comes down to Kevin Feige and him
just being this ultimate collaborator working with the filmmakers, and he’s very
trusting. My take on it is once he’s made the choice, like this is the filmmaker
that is going to make this movie, this is who I want, it’s a very open and trusting
relationship. It’s almost always a conversation, a group conversation. But the
director is there to make the movie and he’s got a ton of support from Marvel. So
yeah, actually. From my perspective, it was a really good experience. All four of
the films. I know a with Infinity War and Endgame, Joe and Anthony said that they
really wanted them to feel like two distinct movies in terms of tone and in terms
of aesthetic approach as well, and I was kind of curious how your visual approach
to Infinity War differed or contrasted with your visual approach to Endgame.
OPALOCH: Yeah, that’s tough. I mean, there was a such similarity between the two
films. A lot of it comes down to the scene that you’re shooting drives everything,
right? So the tone of what you’re going for generally is there on the page, and
then depending on what the actors and the directors do with it throughout the
performance, that’s going to inform where you go with the scene. And so there is
sort of an epic scale on Endgame. Both movies are very big, but to me—I was really
happy with Infinity War, but I was actually really looking forward to Endgame for a
number of reasons. I think a bunch of it had to do with the fact that it was just
all those storylines coming together. And so you sum everything up that you’ve seen
across all these different films for so many years and all these character
storylines, and so I was really looking forward to that kind of closure. Then also
there’s just some great scenes in Endgame. The whole opening, I love. Image via
Marvel Studios And so it’s funny, because I felt like I had to wait much longer
time than I had for the other films, because of course they had to get Infinity War
[done first]. We shot them back-to-back. We had to get Infinity War done so that
that was in post, and then it felt like I had to wait forever to see Endgame, and I
was really, really happy just to see the scale and the look of it all once we
started color timing. I was just very happy with the end result. Did you guys have
any kinds of rules in terms of shot composition or how you were framing things up
on Endgame that were different from Infinity War? Or was it just kind of whatever
the scene needs? OPALOCH: I think it’s, I mean, it’s funny because not just with
the brothers, but on other projects, either commercials or shorts, sometimes I find
when you start, there’s a theoretical discussion level that happens in the early
stage, right? That guides the process and informs things, but everything gets
trumped by what you see on the day. And so basically the feeling, and this is what
I love about filmmaking, that you can react to… you get the camera up, you get that
first lens up for the first wide that’s going to sort of establish everything, and
that’s when you go realtime, and that’s when the decisions matter, because it’s
being laid down for the history books, so to speak. And so I love those moments
where you’re reacting, and again it’s often a conversation with the brothers, with
the different camera operators, and you’ll react to what you’re seeing and
depending on what the actors are doing in front of the lens, that’s going to drive
you towards a certain direction, or look, or feel for that. It really makes it kind
of an exciting organic kind of process to be involved with. With the time-heist
section of the film, you have these characters going back to the worlds of three
different movies, which then had three different directors, and three different
cinematographers, Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, and Guardians of the Galaxy. And
so I was kind of curious how you guys approached shooting those scenes in a way
that you can ensure that the scenes felt a part of a whole with those films, but
then also fit in with the palatte you had chosen for Endgame. OPALOCH: Yeah. The
other films, we started with the discussion and looking at the previously shot
scenes. And that definitely gave us the broad strokes, because we had to be able to
drop the viewer into our scene and have a really quick lead as to where they were.
And that’s kind of the gag you’ve got to pull into, and you’re seeing it from a
different perspective. So that definitely informed the process.
And then from there, we had to take over with whatever the specific needs were of
what we were doing in our version of that scene. Image via Marvel Studios So it’s
like a matching the look and feel of the previous films, but then also doing your
own thing. And once you’re into the sequence, I think it opens up a bit as far as
what you can do. You don’t want a big departure from what people are expecting as
far as the scene, because otherwise it kind of blows the gag of what the scene
stands for. Yeah, it was fun. It was neat to have all the different looks. I think
it blends pretty seamlessly, as well. That’s a standout sequence from the film, but
also, obviously, the final battle, which has to be one of the most complicated but
purely satisfying sequences that I’ve seen in a long time. I was wondering if you
could talk about how you even begin to plan for that. And if you could maybe take
me step by step through the process of just how you guys went about capturing that
final battle on film, from your perspective? OPALOCH: It’s months of discussions,
those big sequences. And there’s so much weight and so much pressure to pull it
off. And there’s so many eyeballs expecting something special and great with all
the Marvel fans. So, often, we would schedule those scenes, like the big showdown
sequence at the end of Civil War, that was the same thing. We would schedule it,
kick it back in our schedule to allow for some time for the juices to simmer. In
this particular sequence it was logistically very challenging as well, because we
had so many cast members, and everybody’s off doing different films. They’re doing
their own films, other projects all around the world, so that was a massive
challenge. That sequence, in particular, more than I think anything else that I’ve
worked with with the brothers, was a combination of pre-viz, concept art, and,
also, stunt viz provided by the stunt performers to piece everything together.
Because we had to have a document that guided us during the process, through the
overall sequence, like the “flea flicker” sequence. That’s something that comes up
quite a bit, where they’re handing off the gauntlet from one character to another.
That was shot across months, from start to finish. And we might get Tom Holland for
three hours to do his bit. So we would shoot the in and outs around that, that
scene with him. We shot it a bunch of ways. We shot doubles, we slotted people in
later on, in post, and obviously there’s a lot of seamless editing that takes place
as well. But that was one of the more complex and complicated sequences. It’s a
hectic sequence in its own right. Then when you add the logistics of reduced
availability, and the scheduling problems with all the actors, it was very
challenging, but great. I think it worked out very well. It’s really rewarding to
see it when it was all said and done. Yeah, it’s super gratifying. I would also
imagine there were very few shots in this movie without a visual effects element in
them, which is different from some other movies. And that’s obviously going to
change what the image looks like versus what you captured on set that day. So I was
kind of curious what your involvement is like in post-production, and honing in on
what a scene is going to look like when it’s just an actor against a green screen.
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures OPALOCH: Yeah, you always want to
have as much real estate that you can touch physical set pieces around you. There’s
a couple sets. There’s an interrogation cell that plays in both films. It was
literally jet blue screen after screen, and it’s crazy. And I actually really don’t
like… That’s not a lot of fun for me, because it just leaves so much to the
imagination. Of course, you’ve got concept art and everything that you’re lighting
towards. But all the feedback you get on the set is what is happening with the
actors as far as how they look with the lighting. So it’s just not a lot of fun
compared to lighting something with an actual set, something that you can get that
instant reward from. A lot of it starts very early with conversations with the art
department. And we all settle on what it is, what’s the goal that we’re going for.
What have we landed on as far as the design, or the architecture, or the
construction? What is that physically going to look like? And then, it carried
forward with the visual effects department, because that’s an ongoing discussion,
as well. And that can actually bite you at times. There have been scenes where that
conversation keeps going after you’ve shot it. So now you’ve got to retrofit what
you’ve done, even shooting the final canvas as it’s been rendered out. And a lot of
that stuff you can adjust tonally, as far as color, you can shift the color balance
or anything. But, yeah, it’s definitely something that you need a number of
departments involved in those conversations to make sure that you’re all going in
the right direction. Because so much of it, you’re spending so much money. And when
the actors show up on set, you’ve got to be ready to go. So those conversations
have to take place weeks or months ahead of time so that you’re ready to react to
what you see on set once everything goes live. Were there any instances on this
film where what you shot, the visual effects element changed pretty significantly
after you’ve shot it, and you guys had to rework the lighting in post? OPALOCH: Not
so much on this film. But on Infinity War there was that sequence with Thanos and
Gamora up on the mountaintop. And there was this whole dynamic that we did that we
added to the clouds. And the idea was that the environment was aware of what was
happening down below, and it was almost like it was reacting. So there’s this storm
that was building in intensity. As Thanos got closer to the edge, he talked Gamora
down. So the idea was we had these lightning blasts going off. The concept was
there was dynamic lightning effects, but not hard lightning, as it’s taking place
above and diffused by heavy thick storm clouds. So it was like these lighting
pulses that were building in intensity. So we had that, and we had those
conversations, and everybody was on the same page. And then, something changed. So
when you see the final film, I think, if you don’t know what to look for, you
probably wouldn’t even react to it. But, me, I imagined something happening in the
skies, because of course, all the skies are getting CG. But I guess, for whatever
reason, that just wasn’t a priority when it came to rendering that element of the
plate. So the lighting is doing something that the skies aren’t doing. But overall
it’s fixed. So I think the reason you get away with it is it just feels like
there’s something happening offscreen. And it isn’t right in the very deep
background that you can see in the shot. So in the end, it wasn’t that much, but I
was pretty stressed the first time I saw that.