In 2015, Taika Waititi, a successful but relatively obscure independent film-maker from New Zealand, walked into the offices of Marvel and pitched himself as the director of Thor: Ragnarok, a multi-million-dollar superhero movie. Marvel's top brass were intrigued by Waititi. Films such as the 2010 coming-of-age comedy Boy, and 2014 vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows were small and strange, but big-hearted - an elusive mix of absurd and sincere. It set a tone for a style of film-making that defies easy description, though Waititi settles for "Taika-esque". When presenting his vision to a room of executives, he didn't express himself using words, but images - a pitch reel, clips from other movies, music, "colour, tones, the general sensibilities…" Waititi says. "I thought, 'I'm just going to put my voice 100 per cent up there on screen and Marvel will have to try and keep me in their lane." The ploy worked.
Read more: Thor Ragnarok review: Marvel finally adds fun to the thunder
Waititi, now 42, pitched Thor: Ragnarok as a cross between Flash Gordon and Big Trouble in Little China: "a lovable hero bumbling through a crazy world, meeting crazy characters". It was ideal for what Marvel wanted, which, according to Waititi, was a more "fun and entertaining" Thor; a buddy movie in which the god of thunder himself (played by Chris Hemsworth) must work with Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, first to escape Sakaar, the planet they've been marooned on, and then to stop the coming of Ragnarok, the apocalypse threatened by Hela (Cate Blanchett), the goddess of death.
"I really wanted to tap into Chris's natural talent, which is comedy," Waititi says. "In the story, it's two years on [from Avengers: Age of Ultron], so Thor, through hanging out on Earth, should be a bit more colloquial and contemporary. By the time Thor finds Hulk, he and Bruce Banner are fighting for control of their body. He's volatile. It's fun seeing Thor having to deal with that."
Speaking of control, it's hard to look at Waititi - maker of much-loved indie films; an auteur of distinct style and tone - and not think of Edgar Wright, who, in 2014, walked away from Marvel's Ant-Man, citing creative differences. Wright would later clarify his reason as: "I wanted to make a Marvel movie, but I don't think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie."
So, is Thor: Ragnarok a Taika Waititi movie? "I can't speak to anyone else's experience," he says. "I came in knowing I'd never experienced this kind of thing before. So I was ready to learn how they do things; to open myself to having my ideas interpreted in different ways and having to collaborate. But I'll always fight for an idea that I think is worth fighting for, and if I feel like an experience is going to be really bad, I'd probably pull out of the project. I didn't really think I needed to compromise too much. In terms of tone, I was actually given a lot of freedom."
A prime example of this, he says, was his freedom to build a collaborative community on set - a loose environment in which actors felt free to improvise Eric Pearson's screenplay. One of the best lines from the trailer, in fact ("I know him! He's a friend from work!") was suggested to Hemsworth by a child visiting as part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. "We did some crazy stuff," Waititi says. "We were throwing away lines all the time and just trying to keep it interesting, so there's enough room for credible ideas to come out. I was fully expecting that my way of working might be a bit more restricted than I'm used to. But it really wasn't that different."
Waititi says he used to be something of a film snob, but he can now see the art in superhero movies: "When you get older, and have kids, you realise the world is full of art." However, he remains unsure if he would make another one. He is, after all, a restless creative; a polymath who's done everything from painting to stand-up to photography. He's also used to juggling several scripts at a time - the last of which, the 2016 Sam Neill comedy-drama The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, became the highest-grossing film in New Zealand's history. "I've been really good on Thor," he laughs. "I haven't been writing. I haven't worked on other projects, I've been concentrating." But now? He's co-directing a stop-motion animated movie about Michael Jackson's pet chimpanzee Bubbles, of course - a project that's still in its early stages.
"I'd like to [make another Hollywood movie]. But I also have to do something different for my own sanity," he says. "I'm not sure if I'd want to do many of these movies in a row. I want to keep it interesting for myself and surprise myself. That's why I think Marvel's done well. They do something different every time. If I were to work with these guys again it'd have to feel very different. I don't want to get too comfortable or complacent."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
