Was offered Black Widow movie, says director Lucrecia Martel

Martel narrated her meeting with Marvel Studios during her masterclass at the 20th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star.

“I received an e-mail from Marvel for a meeting. Because they were looking for directors for Black Widow. So I went to the reunion. I actually signed this thing where I can’t talk about that reunion. Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers. I do believe another female director is making the movie. What they told me in the meeting was ‘we need a female director because we need someone who is mostly concerned with the development of Scarlett Johansson’s character,'” Lucrecia Martel said.

The studio asked her not to “worry about action scenes,” saying, “We will take care of that.”

Martel added, “I was thinking, well I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences.”

Lucrecia Martel believes while production houses want to associate with more female directors, there is still resistance to allow women to lead other departments, which are considered ‘male-oriented’.

“I think this is because we are in transition. Companies are interested in female filmmakers, but they still think action scenes are for male directors,” she said.

The director also expressed her criticism of Marvel films.

“The first thing I asked them was maybe if they could change the special effects because there’s so many laser lights. I find them horrible. Also the soundtrack of Marvel films is quite horrendous. Maybe we disagree on this but it’s really hard to watch a Marvel film. It’s painful to the ears to watch Marvel films,” Martel said.

She ended the session quipping, “If this session is going to be on YouTube, I would love to make Black Widow”.