The general rule of thumb in Hollywood is that the third movie in a trilogy is rarely the best in the series, but Taika Waititi upended expectations with “Thor: Ragnaork.” Hands down the most entertaining picture the hero has ever been a part of, the film’s success has likely left a welcoming door wide open for the director at Disney. However, don’t think he’s just going to jump onto some other big project at the mouse house.
In fact, Waititi was one of the original writers assigned to last year’s animated hit “Moana.” According to the filmmaker, all that’s left of his first draft is “EXT: OCEAN – DAY” (ha ha), but he explains that he just wasn’t really into the material.
“It wasn’t anything to do with the process, I just got b[ored],” he told The Guardian. “Like I do all the time, I just ended up wanting to do my own thing again and make a vampire movie instead.”
Fair enough. I can understand why Waititi wouldn’t want to waste his fertile imagination on something he’s not passionate about. Still, he was interested in helping Disney make movie about people from the Pacific, in a manner that treated them with care.
“I thought, well, the best way of them not making something that’s insensitive or shallow was to involve people from that community, from the Pacific … If there’s some way I could be at the table and help try and make this not a bad film, then I’ll try,” he explained.
However, the filmmaker feels that Disney could’ve pushed the envelope a little bit further. “I know the danger is they’ve got to be respectful but Pacific islanders and Polynesians have some of the least respectful humour on the planet,” Waititi said. “[But], as Americans making a film about another culture, and having been criticized in the past for their depictions of minorities, they have to be a bit safer.”
As for Waititi, he went and made ‘Thor: Ragnarok” which allowed to be as irreverent as he pleased.