Taika Waititi on How He's Approaching THOR: RAGNAROK and Its Humor
Last week, director Taika Waititi premiered his amazingly funny new movie Hunt For The Wilderpeople. Seeing this film got me more excited to see what he actually plans on bringing to Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok. In a recent interview's with Cnet and Crave Online, the director spoke about how he's approaching Thor and the humor he will bring to the story:
“My strength in this is bringing my style of humor, which is probably a very different style of humor. They've had good jokes in them before, but I think where I come from is maybe a fresher style. It could just shake the entire thing up a bit.”
There's a good chance that even as dark a star as Thor: Ragnarok is, this could be one of the funniest Marvel films depending on how much humor he interjects. He also talked about joining the big budget Marvel family after directing several independent films in the past few years:
“I’m like the new kid in class! They’re really cool people. I’ve already made some great friends, and everyone wants to make the best story possible. [The development process is] very collaborative, more collaborative than I think people probably expect. It’s not just one person ordering everyone around. It’s people discussing and saying, ‘What if it was like this’ or ‘I don't think it should be like that’, which is very healthy. And it’s actually what I’m used to, coming from theatre and co-ops and collaborating.”
When asked if he could say anything regarding the plot, he said:
“No, because I don’t even know. We're still figuring out what characters are in it and how they all interact. We’re very early on in prep, storylining, figuring it all out”
I'm sure he knows where the story is going, he just doesn't want to spoil it. We've previously heard the film will kind of be like Midnight Run. While talking with Crave Online, Waititi was asked how much freedom he has on developing the film, and this was his response:
“I guess we’ll see once we get on set. I think on set it’s a different story. It’s basically about coming in under budget. [Laughs.] That’s all it’s about. If you come in under budget and on time you can do what you want, really. Just stick to what the idea of the story is. I always do that. And I’ve talked a lot about my style and the way I work on set, which is very improvisational. I make up a lot of shots on the spot sometimes but I always have a plan. I always plan what I’m going to do and then I’ll throw that plan away when I see what the actors want to do, and then we have to come to a common ground and figure that out.”
He was then asked if there’s a danger of making changes on the spot, especially when it comes to using lots of CGI in these kinds of films:
“There will definitely be that danger, yeah, but as much as possible I like to shoot practically and on locations. This will be very different for me but luckily I’ve done a lot of commercials before, some big ones, so I’m used to changing pace on bigger sets. There’s a lot of waiting around, and nobody likes to wait around while they’re setting up green screens and weird CG stuff. But yeah, these movies are so big that they have to.”
Waititi then confirmed that Marvel actually approached him to make the pitch for the third Thor film. Obviously, their instincts were right about him, and they gave him the gig! He also spoke about one aspect of the pitch he made to them:
“They watched Shadows obviously, and they watched Boy, and I think the combination of those two films, you get that I wasn’t just like a crazy comedy director or too dramatic. They wanted to weave a little bit away from that. […] Basically how I pitched it was like, [Thor] just needs to be the most interesting character. If you’re going to call the movie Thor, Thor has to be the best character.”
I seriously can't wait to see what Waititi does with this movie! I have no doubt it's going to blow fans away. Thor: Ragnarok is in great hands, and it's set to be released on November 3rd, 2017.