Daniels' Joke Pitch For A Marvel Movie Starring Kevin Feige Sounds Good, Actually
Love it or hate it, but in our superhero-saturated culture, questions about Marvel movies have become inevitable even for directors who are doing press tours for non-Marvel films. In the case of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmaking duo known collectively as the Daniels, such questions are only slightly more relevant because of the nature of the movie they are currently promoting.
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" happens to star Michelle Yeoh, who appeared last year in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." Moreover, the film's plot hinges on the concept of the multiverse, something Marvelites have become all too familiar with thanks to shows like "Loki" and movies like "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and the upcoming "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness."
In a new interview with Rotten Tomatoes (video below), the question of how the Daniels would approach a Marvel project came up. The filmmakers gave a very tongue-in-cheek answer that still sounds more interesting than a Great Lakes Avengers movie or whatever bottom-of-the-barrel adaptation we might be waiting for Marvel to do next.
The Daniels began by joking about how they are "so tired of the multiverse" after "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and were ready to "just do a regular family drama" or work on a "focused love triangle idea." "Small movies, that's the future," Kwan laughed.
When pressed further to explain how they would handle a Marvel family drama, Scheinert joked, "It would be a Charlie Kaufman-esque family drama" about the head of Marvel Studios. No, not Professor Charles Francis Xavier, the leader of the X-Men and incoming "Multiverse of Madness" player. Scheinert explained:
"It'd be about Kevin Feige and his family and him having dreams where Doctor Strange is trying to help him with his daughter's college applications."
A Kevin Feige production, starring Kevin Feige
Viewers of "Hawkeye" on Disney+ last year may have noticed a new credit labeling the series "A Kevin Feige production." As the producer overseeing everything since the very start, Feige has long been the driving force behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but "Hawkeye" put his name out in front like never before. Personally, as an old-school Marvelite who has nonetheless been feeling some superhero fatigue as of late (good films like "No Way Home" and "The Batman" notwithstanding), I say: why stop at "A Kevin Feige production"? Why not make it "A Kevin Feige production, starring Kevin Feige"?
The idea of a Charlie Kaufman-esque drama, as the Daniels suggested, immediately brings to mind "Adaptation," the 2002 Spike Jonze film written by Kaufman, in which Nicolas Cage played a fictional version of Kaufman and his fictional twin brother, Donald. In this fictional Kevin Feige-led Marvel project helmed by the Daniels, Feige, too, would be playing himself. And if there was a multiverse or multiple personalities involved — as is always the case lately with the MCU — Feige could even play one or more alternate versions of himself!
Make it a six-episode Disney+ series. I would definitely watch that. It wouldn't even feel like a chore; I would be eager to tune in every week. And I think that speaks to the creativity of the Daniels, that they are able to toss off an idea like this in a joking manner and still have it sound more interesting than half of what is out there on screens both big and small. Fielding Marvel questions may not be every filmmaker's idea of a good time, but at least the Daniels have a good sense of humor about it, and hey, if it brings more attention to "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and gets people to see it, why not have fun with this stuff?
What I'm trying to say here is, Mr. Feige, have your people call our people. Or maybe just call yourself and have the latent actor in you convince the veteran producer to let him star in a series called "FeigeVision."