‘The Book Of Eli’ And ‘The Continental’ Director Albert Hughes Questions Why Any “Real Filmmaker” Would Work For Marvel
John F. Trent
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Albert Hughes, who directed The Book of Eli as well as recent episodes of The Continental: From The World of John Wick, questioned why any filmmaker would work for Marvel.
Hughes spoke with Josh Horowitz on YouTube, where he detailed how he had actually begun the process of working with Marvel when he realized it was not for him.
He said, “I’ve been in talks with the obvious studio about superhero movies a couple of times, but I always felt uncomfortable because I knew it was a system. And they’re very nice and I went through a long process.”
“In fact, I broke down — I still have this from a year and a half ago where I broke down all their movies, like put them in a spreadsheet and broke down the box office, the Rotten Tomatoes score, the VFX. I ranked the VFX. I had to do a deep dive on them,” Hughes explained.
“And I got very halfway, not very close, halfway through the process.” he continued. “Then I go, ‘Nah. I would implode from kind of the controlled nature of that world and not being able to do what I do.'”
Next, he questioned why real filmmakers would work for them, “And I don’t understand, I wouldn’t understand why a real filmmaker would want to be in that system.”
“I would understand why up-and-comers would, which do a good job of like finding people at the right time, but I think I would implode,” he reiterated.
He relayed, “There was one character I was interested in. All the others I really weren’t. There was two other opportunities that I just know it’s a bad situation. You never want to be somewhere you’re not truly wanted. You’re not truly wanted for what you do.”
As for what character he was interested in, he all but confirmed it was Blade when Horowitz asked him if it rhymes with Glade. He said, “That smells like it’s on the right trail.”
Hughes went on to discuss his distinction between a filmmaker and a director, “I think there’s a thing that is rarely talked about in Hollywood: the difference between a director and a filmmaker. A filmmaker it’s all encompassing what their touches on that film. That’s a filmmaker to me. And there are filmmakers, like a producer can be a filmmaker too, a cameraman is a filmmaker, you know, a rockstar cameraman.
In contrast he said, “A director is the one who just comes and calls action and leaves and doesn’t really…checks in on the edit every once in awhile. You know, you’ve seen a million of those.”
“So if you’re getting hired for you and what you do and what you bring — I’ve been in a situation more recently where I started getting poked and prodded, and I’m like, ‘Oh, they didn’t really want I do. I was checking a box for them, and this is not going to work out.’ And it didn’t work out. I had to quit that job. I smelled it pretty early and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not here for this,'” he added.
What do you make of Albert Hughes’ comments about filmmakers and Marvel?
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