Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing helped him Finish AVENGERS

As you may recall, Joss Whedon took a month long vacation from The Avengers, during which time he ended up directing a micro budget adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Turns out that vacation helped Whedon finish the incredible superhero epic. Apparently he wasn't feeling very confident in his work, especially when he needed to start cutting stuff out. Whedon recently sat down with Vulture for an interview in which he explained,

In a way, it was sort of a coming-home party because everyone in it is someone I love, or at least someone I'm a big fan of and planned to love. It was also a palate cleanser after a grueling shoot of a very effects-driven movie. I came off The Avengers and I was exhausted. We were already editing because our schedule on The Avengers was very accelerated, and I was having to cut out things and I was in that space where I'm like, "Ohhh, it's not really my movie anymore. It's not about anything!" [I was] sort of having the angst. And then I shot Much Ado and was able to come back to The Avengers and go, "Okay! Whoa, sorry guys. I'm back." I could see it clearly and go, "You know what? [The Avengers] is getting better, and here's what I need to take out." It just sort of gave me perspective, and not the perspective of, "Oh well, I got to make my passion project, so now I'll just churn this out," but the perspective where I could look at it the way I was supposed to because I felt like I'd been on a vacation for a month. At least, that was my idea of a vacation.

I'm sure you can all relate to what Whedon is talking about. I know when I get burnt out on writing or get writer's block, I have to walk away and do something else to clear my head. When I come back to write I see things a lot clearer.

He went on to talk more about Much Ado About Nothing, saying that it made him "smile so hard that my face broke. My lips just split because I was smiling so hard." He also talked about how Nathan Fillion's performance as Dogberry "pretty much closes the book" on the character. "It's a masterful performance, and it's performed by a guy who tried to get out of it because he was so scared."

The movie is set to debut later this week at the Toronto Film Festival. I'm excited about checking it out once it's released in theaters!