2021 could be setting itself up as the biggest, most rewarding year in the career of Chloe Zhao. Not only is the filmmaker already being nominated for a ton of awards for “Nomadland,” and you have to assume that Oscars are in the future, but she’s also prepping the release of her blockbuster debut project, Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” in November. Could we see a year where Zhao begins by winning an Oscar and ends with a billion-dollar movie? If you believe Kevin Feige, that could be the case, as he thinks “Eternals” has all the makings of an instant classic.
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Speaking to Rolling Stone, as part of a profile on filmmaker Chloe Zhao, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige called the director’s pitch for “Eternals” the best he’s ever heard and explained why she’s perfect to make the jump from intimate indie work to big-budget, cosmic superhero films.
“Not only does Chloe make remarkable, small, personal movies in a remarkable, small, personal way, but she thinks in grand, cosmic, gigantic terms, which fit perfectly with what we wanted to do,” said Feige. “Eternals is a very big, sweeping, multimillennial-spanning story. And she just got it.”
And on paper, you just have to assume that the woman who was able to bring incredible films such as “The Rider” and “Nomadland” to life would be able to make a really great superhero film, as long as the studio lets her do her thing. Judging by what we’ve heard in other interviews with Zhao and Marvel, it appears Feige’s studio kind of just let her do her thing, including the same camera setup she used for “Nomadland” was used for “Eternals.”
Another similarity between “Eternals” and her previous work is the humanity that is on display in the characters. As the filmmaker explained, she always searches for ways that the actors can imbue their characters with their own humanity.
“I always fight really hard to have as much of whoever’s playing that role in it,” she said. “And I want to continue to work that way in the future, whether it’s a bigger film or a smaller film. Because I always find, people are just so interesting. Y’know?”
For now, “Eternals” is set to debut on November 5. But depending on what happens with theaters and “Black Widow’s” May release date, that could be in flux. We’ll have to wait and see.