Albert Hughes passed on directing BLADE for Marvel; He says he doesn’t “understand why a real director” would direct a Marvel movie

Director Albert Hughes (Threat II Society, From Hell, The Book of Eli, The Continental) recently revealed that he is in the running to direct Lama for Marvel Studios. But as he progressed through the process, he realized that he didn’t want to work within the confines of the Marvel studio system.

The director spoke about this experience with Happy Sad Confused and explained that he doesn’t “understand why a real director” would want to make a Marvel movie. He said:

“I talked to the obvious studio a couple of times about superhero movies, but I always felt uncomfortable because I knew it was a system. And they are very nice and I went through a long process. In fact, I broke down all of their films, put them into a spreadsheet and analyzed the box office, looking at the title soundtracks, where they rank the visual effects, I had to do an in-depth analysis on them.

Hughes went on to talk about why he decided to withdraw from the running for the job, explaining that he’s not the type of director who works within the “controlled” system of Marvel Studios:

“And I got, halfway through, not very close, halfway through the process, and I thought, ‘No, I would implode because of the kind of controlled nature of that world and not being able to do what I do.’ And I don’t understand why any real director would want to be part of that system. I understand why up-and-comers would do that, which they do a good job of. Finding people at the right time. But I think I would implode.”

He continued saying:

“So if you get hired for you and what you do and what you bring, more recently I’ve been in a situation where I get poked and prodded, and it’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t really want what I do.’ For them it meant checking a box and it won’t work. And it didn’t work; I had to leave that job. I smelled it pretty early on and said, ‘No, I’m not here for that.'”

This is completely understandable. It seems like many of the Marvel directors are guided by the executives and producers on how to direct these films. I think there are some exceptions, and while Marvel seems to allow directors to incorporate their cinematic style and sensibilities, they are constrained by the story they tell because it has to fit into a bigger picture.

I’ve enjoyed watching Marvel movies over the years, but now it’s a real movie production factory down there.