In particular, Zhao’s insistence that she directed the movie’s action exists in the context of a very specific quote from Argentine film director Lucrecia Martel, who declined the invitation to direct Black Widow when she was told that she would not be directing the action. She is very much fighting against the perceived corporate culture at Disney in general and at Marvel Studios in particular: an environment that has been documented as being somewhat hostile and antagonistic to directors with the kind of strong and distinctive vision associated with award-winning talent like Zhao. There are reasons why Chloé Zhao has had to aggressively assert her own authorship of Eternals. However, there is a lot of context at play here. From the outside, this looks like it might simply be pervasive sexism directed at an emerging female director, with the press assuming that Zhao is not enjoying the freedom afforded to male contemporaries. Profiles following her Oscar win reported that Zhao “ was really fighting for practical locations” to be used, with producer Kevin Feige arguing her case to senior management.

“My God, for a year and a half, three times a week for a couple hours a day, I was sitting in front of a big screen making decisions for every detail of how visual effects could look in the real world,” she explained.Įven earlier coverage of the film’s production emphasized Zhao’s active control over the project. In a recent interview with IndieWire, Zhao had to assure the interviewer that she had directed the action and special effects in the film. It would seem obvious that Zhao is a director to watch and that any studio collaborating with her would be well advised to extend the sort of creative freedom enjoyed by auteurs like Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, or Ridley Scott.Īs such, it is interesting that so much of the narrative around Eternals has come to focus on how much control she enjoyed over the finished film. Eternals in the hands of director Chloé Zhao has become something of a flashpoint in terms of the authorship debate within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.Ĭhloé Zhao is one of the most promising directors working in contemporary Hollywood, having recently won the Best Director Oscar for her work on Nomadland.

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