Whether you love or hate them, superhero movies are here to stay. The industry made popular by studios like DC and Marvel has long been driving audiences to cinemas and raking in the millions at the global box office. Even with legendary directors likeMartin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola slamming these franchise film series, it comes down to what the people want and — at the end of the day — they want gargantuan features likeAvengers: EndgameandSpider-Man: No Way Home. Soon,American BeautyandSpectredirector,Sam Mendeswill take a jab at these juggernauts in the HBO series,The Franchise, which will follow a crew doing their best — and struggling every step of the way — to produce a superhero movie.
During a roundtable discussion atthe Karlovy Vary International Film Festivalthat included Collider’s Editor-in-ChiefSteve Weintraub,The FranchisestarDaniel Brühlspoke about the art that mimics life in the series and how he thinks Marvel — a studio he’s worked with in the past — will react. He said:
“Yeah, it’s incredibly timely.I think it will hit a nerve… It’s a satire about the superhero movie industry, and I was happy to play not the alter ego of Sam Mendes, but playing a European director who wants to do art but then ends up being in a franchise that is catastrophic because he cannot do anything he wants to do, and has to eat a lot of shit. And that was so much fun.And especially the people at MCU have a lot of sense of humor. And actually, I never felt, doing it, that it would go against them.
But I have been in other projects that I wouldn’t like to name where I felt the despair and frustration that I could use playing that character where you are, like, ‘What the hell? What are we doing? What am I doing? I don’t understand anything anymore’ So, I’ve been there. I’ve been once or twice I’ve been there. [Laughs] I’ve been in that place, so I can tell that it’s incredibly, shockingly authentic, incredibly witty and fun.”
Daniel Brühl Is Thrilled He Was Hired Despite His German Heritage
Both during his chat with Weintraub and via an interview with Collider’s Lead News EditorMaggie Lovittatthe tail end of last year, Brühl was sure to praise Mendes for hiring him even though the actor views Germans as a people severely lacking in the comedy department.
“I was always trying to get a foot in a top comedy, but it’s very difficult for a German. And also, I said a trillion times to Sam Mendes, ‘Thanks for choosing a German,’ because I’m the only one who’s not English or American. He was looking for a director who could be from anywhere, and so when he said yes eventually, I said, ‘Oh my god, thank you!’ And Sam said, ‘You know, you’re very funny for being a German.’ [Laughs] And so when we shot the pilot, we had so much fun.”
The Franchisehas yet to set a release date but stay tuned to Collider for more information.
The Franchise
A team trapped inside the dysfunctional hell of creating franchise superhero movies, at the end of the day the question they face is: is this Hollywood’s new dawn or cinema’s last stand? Is this a dream factory or a chemical plant?
