AGE OF ULTRON Nabs KICK-ASS AND GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Cinematographer

Seamus McGarvey won’t be returning behind the camera for Avengers: Age of Ultron, the director of photography will be too busy filming Fifty Shades of Grey and has led Marvel to hire someone else instead. They’ll look to Marvel alumni Ben Davis to collaborate with Joss Whedon on the sequel, Ben is best known for working with Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, The Secret Service) on films such as Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass and just completed production on Guardians of The Galaxy. James Gunn revealed he recommended Ben and likely helped him land the gig.

“I did everything I could to let Joss know how great I thought [Davis] was. And, of course, Joss was able to see first hand what an amazing job Ben was doing on Guardians.” 

You might remember Dark Knight Trilogy‘s cinematographer Wally Pfister (won an Oscar for Inception) called out McGarvey’s work on Avengers as “appalling” when asked about his impression of the film during an interview. Pfister’s comments made their way to Seamus who had only praise for Wally, and seemed a bit let down by the statements. My personal opinion on McGarvey wasn’t too kind when the first teaser trailer for Avengers was released, to me it looked like a television production (not unlike the look of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D). This doesn’t mean the entire film was a wash but those Battle of New York scenes were shot terrible and looked very cheap (minus the special effects) in my view. I really enjoyed the helicarrier and forest scenes which were the visual highlights of the film to me, but I can understand on a technical level why some wouldn’t be happy with the camera work.

“What’s really important is storytelling. None of it matters if it doesn’t support the story. I thought The Avengers was an appalling film. They’d shoot from some odd angle and I’d think, why is the camera there? Oh, I see, because they spent half a million on the set and they have to show it off. It took me completely out of the movie. I was driven bonkers by that illogical form of storytelling.” 

I doubt this has anything to do with Seamus moving on to other projects as Marvel has a tendency to make sure all their films have a similar look, bringing back Davis to shoot the sequel which is released after Guardians follows that mantra. I’m a massive fan of Ben’s work and was shocked when he didn’t work on X-Men First Class and The Secret Service, he has an excellent eye for genre films and could give that extra pop to end Phase Two on a high-note.

Marvel got my attention earlier in the year when District 9, Elysium and Chappie cinematographer Trent Opaloch was hired to shoot Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that trailer blew me away not only by the cut and action but it’s overall look. Trent also shot the live-action short Ghost Recon: Alpha which was on par with Neill Blomkamp’s Halo shorts. The studio is starting to get serious with their crew choices and it will payoff in the long run.

Joss Whedon returns as writer-director along with cast members Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlet Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Cobie Smulders, the new additions include James Spader as Ultron, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch and Aaron Johnson as Quicksilver. Production is expected to begin early next year at Pinewood Studios UK with a May 1st, 2015 release date.

SOURCE: CBM