Kevin Feige wants movies to 'Inspire the next generation of storytellers'
“I love the idea that our movies can inspire the next generations of storytellers the way that my favorite movies inspired me,” he said. “I hope that’s how it has the effect.”
So who as a writer or filmmaker is inspired by movies? Well, I have to admit I am tremendous. My first inspiration to write was when I was young and being a marvel comics reader and collector. Many times I thought of my own story with the marvel comic heroes. As I became a teenager, I thought about how the characters could be given even more depth with relationships and normal issues. Something that Marvel was already way ahead of DC in that respect already bringing more relatable heroes to the masses. Then when the first Superhero movies started to come out like the original Superman by Richard Donner or Batman with Michael Keaton I was happy to see them on the big screen but disappointed that Hollywood was making them so campy.
The old black and white movies (and first color movies) that I watched as a kid on Creature Features Saturday Nights which I got to stay up late for and was so anxious for hosted movies like The Werewolf, The Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, and so many more truly got my imagination going.
The Hulk TV show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno was the one that really irritated me (I still watched them all though) because as a hard-core marvel comic fan I knew this was not the Hulk. There was a paperback marvel comic series that I had collected way back when (don't have them any more dang it) which did a great job of describing each character as they truly should be instead of just looking at an artist interruption.
I still remember it to this day. It started off describing Captain America. The perfect example of the human specimen, six foot four, 240 lbs, in perfect shape, trained combat fighter and trainer in multiple techniques. Then it went onto Thor, six foot nine, 320 lbs. This really cemented his image in my mind as truly a god-like being. Bigger than a normal human male, even one like Captain America who is the human specimen at its perfect peak. Then came the Hulk. Nearly 2000 lbs at eight feet tall. As he walks the cement or asphalt will crack under his weight, would walk through buildings and not even notice he was doing it feeling nothing of the destruction left in his wake. So that description really logged into my imagination of an immense creature truly dwarfing humans and even "gods" in both height and mass. So when I saw the Hulk on TV looking like a green bodybuilder (despite Lou definitely being big even compared to the rest in that world) I was disappointed that he was not the Hulk I dreamed of seeing on the big screen.
Then comes the Marvel Cinematic Universe (#MCU) in 2009 under the helm of Kevin Feige who had already learned a lot under other greats tutelage and brought a supreme fan desire (like my own) to truly do the marvel characters justice on the big screen. Ironman was obviously the one that got the attention of the critics and really started the MCU, but I also really enjoyed the HULK that also came out that year in his own movie. Seeing him on the big screen like the HULK should be throwing tanks around, catching missiles in mid-air, and taking out apache helicopters really sold it for me as a fan. The MCU's real perfection was both by the actors selected to play the parts, and by the special effects team that brought them to life as they should be. Superheroes are supposed to be bigger than life. The men larger and more impressive, the women more beautiful and striking in the image, and all more confident yet still flawed as any being would be.
Well, the rest is history and Kevin and his great team of cinematographers, writers, designers, actors, and special effects teams have made an incredible series of interlocking movies that tie in all the characters, satisfying the hardcore fans and popcorn fiction fans alike. I applaud them all and thank them for the 23 movie win streak of blockbusters that they have churned out so far with many more on the horizon. They have inspired me greatly to go after my dreams of being a novelist of adventure and action stories. Along with other monumental movies like Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Predator, Alien, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and many more which are also ingrained into my psyche now going forward.
So thank you to all those great storytellers and cinematographers for the inspiration to all of inspiring new storytellers!
