Asian American woman tabbed to direct Marvel's 'The Eternals'

SCREEN CAPTURE / GOLDEN GLOBES

Chloe Zhao tabbed do helm a Marvel blockbuster.

ASAM NEWS

AN UP AND COMING Asian American director has landed in the big time.
Marvel Studios has hired Chloe Zhao to direct The Eternals, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

The big-budget Marvel film is a departure from the independent films Zhao has built her reputation on. Zhao is best known for directing two award-winning independent films. Her latest, The Rider, won the Directors’ Fortnight Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Her debut film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, received three nominations from the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards.

Sources told Variety that Marvel was so enthralled with Zhao that the studio moved quickly to nab her before she landed another job.

Her rise comes at a time much attention has been made about the lack of women directors in Hollywood.

“I want to make sure the people who work with me want to work with me-not to fill a quota,” Zhao told AsAm News earlier this year. “I understand each woman has to be an individual.”

The Eternals is considered Marvel’s next potential franchise. It has hired Matthew and Ryan Firpo to write the script. The Eternals takes place a million years ago. Genetic experiments on humans are being conducted by the Celestials. The story will include a love story between Ikaris, who has cosmic energy, and Sersi, who hangs with the humans, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A part of Disney-owned Marvel's intention to have half of its future projects helmed by women, Zhao is the third woman to helm a Marvel project based on its comic book superhero characters. The upcoming Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson is being directed by Anna Boden (who directs with Ryan Fleck) and Cate Shortland directs Avengers star Scarlett Johansson in the Black Widow solo movie currently under development.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.
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TGIF Feature: Filipino American's sci-fi 'Geostorm' releases this weekend

Dean Devlin

DEAN DEVLIN is the latest Asian/American director/producer to helm a Hollywood blockbuster costing millions of dollars and tons of special effects.

Dean Devlin, who usually is the behind-the-scenes producer of movies like Independence Day or Gonzilla, has taken the director's chair for his latest effort Geostorm, which hits the screens Friday (Oct. 20).

In the last few years, a few AAPI directors have earned the opportunity to create havoc onscreen in big-budget films, including: Thor: Ragnorok, which will be released next month, was helmed by Taika Waititi of New Zealand; Justin Lin directed the well-received Star Trek Beyond; and Gemini Man, directed by Ang Lee was released earlier this month.

Geostorm is set in the near future where scientists have developed space stations that can manually control the weather, The hero, played by Gerard Butler is tasked with saving the day when the satellites go haywire, causing all kinds of natural disasters to be unleashed, creating a horrendously demolished planet.

Eath ends up resembling a three-vehicle pile-up of Devlin's other blockbusters San Andreas, The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day. While not all critically acclaimed, Devlin's productions are wildly entertaining and end up making tons of money, which is why his latest venture reportedly cost $100 million.

Devlin started shooting in 2014, and it took two years to wrap filming. Responses of the test audiences were horrible so extensive script rewrites and additional scenes were shot to try and salvage the production.

Oct. 20 was picked as the release date prior to the natural disasters caused by Hurricanes Maria, Irma and Harvey.

As reported by Mashable, the Geostorm tagline seems slightly distasteful in light of the hundreds of people killed by natural disasters of late, leading Warner Bros to release the following statement: “We want to be sensitive to everyone who are being [sic] and have been affected by the horrible storms, including families that may live in unaffected areas."

“I don’t think these weather conditions are going to get better on their own,” Devlin noted to Variety. “We used to call them the storm of the century but now we’re seeing what happens if we don’t act fast enough — and real human beings are suffering because of that. This is a popcorn movie but I do think the underlying message has never been more relevant.”

It is not all special effects and worldwide calamities for the Filipino/American director/producer. Devlin’s Electric Entertainment has acquired all North American rights for director Rob Reiner’s “LBJ,” starring Woody Harrelson as President Lyndon Johnson, which is set for general release Nov. 10.

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