Pop Friday: Joss Whedon Hired to Write Avengers Sequel

The Associated Press reports:

LOS ANGELES – Joss Whedon has been hired on again as boss of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and their superhero pals for a sequel to “The Avengers.”

The news came Tuesday from Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger, who said during a company earnings call that the filmmaker is returning to write and direct the sequel adapted from the Marvel Comics tales.

Iger also said Whedon is helping to develop a Marvel-based TV series for ABC. Marvel is a Disney subsidiary.

No details were provided on a start of production or release date for the sequel to Whedon’s “The Avengers,” the year’s biggest hit with nearly $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office. But the film will have to get in line behind a busy schedule of solo sequels featuring “Avengers” co-stars.

Of the first Avengers movie, Davi Barker wrote here at Silver Underground:

“Just in general I’ve been much more impressed with the Avengers movie franchise than the X-Men franchise, which is disappointing because I was always more impressed with the X-Men comic. But Avengers seems to have mastered the film adaptation of comic crossover, which is very exciting for the future of comic movies. Avid comic readers already know that often in the Marvel Universe to follow an entire story thread you’ll have to read a few issues from multiple titles, and with the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Daredevil and Spider Man all present on the big screen many fans wanted to see a crossover, but unfortunately intellectual property made it impossible. Hopefully the success of Avengers will motivate the owners of these characters to share the spotlight, and we’ll see more crossovers in the future. So, I walked into the movie excited just as a comic fan.”

Award winning writer, producer, and director Joss Whedon has a reputation among libertarians for his Firefly television series and its movie sequel, Serenity, both of which many libertarians say have strong pro-freedom and individualism, as well as anti-state and bureaucracy message. Its opening theme says:

Take my love.
Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don’t care, I’m still free.
You can’t take the sky from me.

Take me out
to the black.
Tell ’em I ain’t comin’ back.
Burn the land and boil the sea.
You can’t take the sky from me.

Have no place
I can be
Since I found Serenity.

And the ship, Serenity’s captain, Mal Reynolds, who Whedon has said is a libertarian, says: “That’s what governments are for, [to] get in a man’s way.”

At Reason Magazine, Julian Sanchez wrote of Firefly and Serenity:

“The interesting thing about Firefly’s cult following, though, is that it seems to include a disproportionate number of libertarians. At an advance screening [of Serenity] in Washington, D.C., I counted the head of Bureaucrash, a couple of folks from the Cato Institute, and at least a half-dozen from the Institute for Humane Studies.”

Will the Avengers sequel carry libertarian themes like those in Firefly and Serenity? Not if the first Avengers film is any indication. As Davi Barker also wrote in his review of Avengers cited earlier:

“I wonder if people expected libertarian themes in Avengers on account of being written by Joss Whedon, who also wrote Firefly and Serenity. But I gotta tell you, other than a rant from Loki about the natural state of mankind being in subjugation, and the bad guys finally admitting that humans are “unruly and therefore unfit to be ruled” I didn’t see much in the way of liberty themes.  But I didn’t see the military propaganda either. The Avengers are cast as heroes, but other than a few select individuals in the ranks the military is more of less just the lesser of evils between two great powers. So slimy are the shadowy government leaders that Captain America questions his blind just-following-orders mentality. The State is just as obsessed with control as the villain, and ultimately the Avengers insist on remaining rogue agents.

What I did see in the film was an awesome action flick punctuated by great comedic dialog, and for my dollar that’s enough. But for those out there in the liberty movement who want to see movies that explicitly espouse the philosophy of liberty, I suggest you support those of us trying to make them.”

Those of us trying to make them are using some of the same methods as Joss Whedon et al. in their production of the Avengers. Here’s a picture of how they filmed Hulk scenes in Avengers:

Here are some pictures of Silver Circle in production and our use of green screens and motion capture to create our animations:

Cool, huh?

And don’t forget to visit our official website to learn more about the Silver Circle Movie: http://SilverCircleMovie.com