The creator of Firefly and Buffy announced at San Diego Comic Con that he has signed on to direct The Avengers movie.
During a panel at Comic Con in San Diego with J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon took the opportunity to announce that he is officially helming the superhero team movie, The Avengers. Whedon, creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly, has been a fan of comics for a long time and seems very excited about the project. There is no official timeframe for when the movie will be released, even though IMDB.com says 2012, and Whedon said that he is still in the planning stage.
“That is not an official thing,” Whedon said to the moderator when asked about directing Avengers. “I think because Marvel couldn’t afford a press release. So can I just make it an official thing? I’m directing The Avengers!”
The crowd went nuts.
Whedon has been into The Avengers for a long time. “They were one of the first books [I read], back when was George Perez was drawing them. This is a big deal for me,” he said.
Whedon said that he got into comic books through his father. “My dad was head writer of The Electric Company,” referring to the 80s PBS children’s show. “They were going to do ‘Spidey Stories’ and he came home with a whole bunch of old Spiderman comics when I was about 9. And I was like, sure, hand your son meth.”
It’s too early in the process for Whedon to comment on his specific take on the movie. There is no script yet, he said that he is still in the outline stage. But he did say that it is interesting knowing who is playing the roles. “The thing that I love about [The Avengers story], the thing that made me excited to do it, is that it is so counterintuitive it is. It makes no sense. These people shouldn’t even be in the same room let alone on the same team. And that to me, is the very definition of family.”
