One thing that you can say for Marvel Studios across the life of their filmmaking endeavors is that they’ve got a stellar track record for making interesting choices with who they hire to direct their films. I can’t say they have a good record empowering those directors to do their best work, or that they don’t often saddle them with scripts beholden more to successive films than the story they’re telling, or that they maintain a good relationship with them consistently… but they at least start off in the right place behind the camera of each project.
The latest example is now Patty Jenkins, directed to take Mjolnir from Kenneth Branagh and direct Thor 2, post-Avengers. The film (as I covered earlier today) is set to be released in November of 2013. You’ll recall that this is not the first lady director to take on a Marvel film, as Lexi Alexander pulled the trigger on Punisher: War Zone (even though that came with plenty of gossip itself). That said, there’s no reason more women shouldn’t be directing superhero films, so it’s still a cool move without some “the first noun to do verb” title affixed to it. This kind of thing should be less notable, frankly.
Ms. Jenkins has been roaming about in the TV world for some years since her 2003 debut Monster. She directed the pilot for The Killing, which seems to have divided and disappointed many audiences, but I feel it started off with potential that I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for. She’s been rumored on Thor 2 for a few weeks now (following rumors of HBO’s Brian Kirk taking it on), but now Deadline has the official word that she will make this her 2nd feature.
Best of luck to Patty, as she’s entering a whole new world working with Marvel. Perhaps being among the first post-Avengers films, Thor 2 will be free to tell its own story and stand alone more strongly than the first.
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