The Big Picture · Interview
November 3, 2017/ 32 min/ Sean Fennessey
Sean Fennessey talks to Taika Waititi about turning the third Thor movie into a comedy, being left alone by Marvel, and how Korg's rock-paper-scissors joke got past the filter.
8 films across 1 segment.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Taika Waititi on 'Thor: Ragnarok'
Marvel came to him mid-edit on 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople'; he pitched Cate Blanchett a chamber piece about a man trying to get home while an arsonist burns down his house. He treated the script as a blueprint and riffed scenes over 20 takes, and he'd put the Led Zeppelin cut in his pitch reel before anyone cleared the song.
The film that actually got Marvel interested, he says, because it proved he could work pathos into the comedy rather than just tell jokes.
He was halfway through the edit, in Hawaii after the birth of his second child, when the Thor email arrived.
The vampire mockumentary with Jemaine Clement; its cop spin-off is what pulled him back to New Zealand right after Ragnarok.
One of his two favorite Marvel franchises. He says he'd never make a Guardians film because James Gunn already owns it so completely.
His other favorite. He suspects it was shot the way he likes to work, actors listening and riffing rather than reciting canned one-liners.
Cate Blanchett came straight off it and wanted to fight and wear a funny costume for once; Waititi needled her about it on set, pitching 'Carol 2.'
His pick for the last great thing he saw. He watched it with his mouth hanging open, he says, the same expression Daniel Kaluuya gives throughout.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing ThorThor: The Dark WorldAnomalisa
In development Bubbles
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Flight of the ConchordsCurb Your EnthusiasmThe X-Files
Comics X-MenNew MutantsBatman
Music Immigrant Song