MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios

If you ever get the chance to get a hold of both The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, I would highly recommend it, soo many people with domino effects and butterfly effects on both sides of the camera and business in how these movies and stories were made. Some key names to start: Richard Donner & Lauren Shuler Donner, Avi Arad, Ike Perlmutter, David Maisel, Jeremy Latcham, Kevin Feige, Sarah Haley Finn, Ryan Meinerding, Adi Granov, Phil Saunders. Timeline excerpts to start, taken from MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, except the first one: December 10, 1978 - Superman: The Movie [added by me] April 22, 1993 - Marvel puts Avi Arad in charge of film and TV projects August 1996 - Marvel Studios founded June 28, 1998 - Toy Biz, run by Ike Perlmutter, acquires Marvel and creates Marvel Enterprises August 21, 1998 - Blade July 14, 2000 - X-Men August 1, 2000 - Kevin Feige’s first day under contract at Marvel May 3, 2002 - Spider-Man February 14, 2003 - Daredevil January 2004 - Marvel hires David Maisel as president and chief operating officer of Marvel Studios September 6, 2005 - Marvel Studios secures Merrill Lynch financing May 31, 2006 - Avi Arad leaves Marvel March 12, 2007 - David Maisel named Marvel Studios chairman May 2, 2008 - Iron Man May 7, 2008 - Kevin Feige named president of Marvel Studios June 13, 2008 - The Incredible Hulk Okay, now I am going to chuck a lot of random facts and anecdotes at you (I will cite both books, and try to put page #'s where possible) : Marvel Entertainment under Avi Arad, itself under Marvel under Ike Perlmutter, produce Blade to great success [1, pg. 15] X-Men enters production under Marvel Entertainment and The Donners' Company, among others X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner hires intern Kevin Feige on the set of X-Men, also produced by Marvel Entertainment [1, pg. 16] Marvel Entertainment's Avi Arad asks Lauren Shuler Donner's permission to hire Kevin Feige to Marvel Studios, on account of his being "diligent, down-to-earth" [1, pg. 17] Avi Arad hires David Maisel to be Marvel Studios President and COO [1, pg. 20] David Maisel brings his assistant Jeremy Latcham [1, pg. 20] Jeremy Latcham almost quits but is instead promoted to producer alongside Kevin Feige after being asked what it would take to stay [1, pg. 22] Kevin Feige assigns Jeremy Latcham to produce Iron Man [1, pg. 23] Avi Arad, David Maisel, Kevin Feige, and Jeremy Latcham (i.e. Marvel Studios) hire Jon Favreau [1, pg. 24] Jon Favreau hires future Marvel Studios producer Louis D'Esposito as producer on Iron Man after working together on Zathura [1, pg. 24] Louis D'Esposito hires Future Marvel Studios producer Victoria Alonso [1, pg. 24] Jeremy Latcham recommends cinematographer Matthew Libatique to Jon Favreau for Iron Man [1, pg. 25] Adi Granov, Ryan Meinerding, and Phil Saunders from Marvel Comics design Iron Man's MCU armor(s) [1, pg. 26] Avi Arad gets Terrence Howard as Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes [1, pg. 29] Jon Favreau, Sarah Haley Finn, Kevin Feige and Terrence Howard advocate for Robert Downey, Jr., against the Marvel board and Avi Arad, who prefer a safer insured bet like Clive Owen or Timothy Olyphant [1, pg. 29] Robert Downey, Jr. agrees to a screen test, highly unusual for an Oscar-nominated actor, and shocks everyone with his defining Tony Stark screen-test [1, pg. 30] Casting of Robert Downey, Jr. catalyzes casting of movie stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges [1, pg. 30] Jon Favreau suggests removing a '"crazy terrible" plot [from Jeremy Latcham], which centered on the Mandarin having a facility next door to Stark Industries and an ultimately underwhelming plan to drill underneat and steal tech from Tony.' [1, pg. 34] Jon Favreau sees Transformers in 2007 and adapts the CGI of Iron Man to be more flashy, from same VFX company ILM [1, pg. 53] Victoria Alonso meets and brings Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer VFX production manager Susan Pickett, instrumental with Jon Favreau to execute Tony's flying sequences, alongside ILM [1, pg. 56-57] Robert Downey, Jr. improvises a four-word line: "I am Iron Man." Iron Man is an "unequivocal success"; "If Robert Downey Jr.'s first mission as Tony Stark had failed, there would be no Marvel Cinematic Universe." [1, pg. 13-14] <break> Joss Whedon's agent calls Kevin Feige and suggests him as the director for The Avengers [1, pg. 122] Kevin Feige shares the recommendation with Jeremy Latcham, who finds the idea ridiculous, because he is the director of Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1, pg. 122] Jeremy Latcham tells author Aileen Erin, also his wife, about how the Joss Whedon-Avengers situation is '"a terrible idea[...], right?"' [1, pg. 122] Aileen Erin tells Jeremy Latcham '"Are you f--king crazy? That's the best idea I've ever heard in my entire life!"' [1, pg. 122] Kevin Feige, Jeremy Latcham, Stephen Broussard, and the rest of Marvel Studios hire Joss Whedon as director of The Avengers [1, pg. 123] Kevin Feige shields Joss Whedon from 'a thirty-page memo of notes saying, 'This movie is in big trouble' from other entities involved' and 'shield[ed]' and 'boil[ed]' it down to 'a page'. [1, pg. 134] Composer Alan Silvestri returns from composing on Captain America: The First Avenger to score The Avengers. [1, pg. 151] Marvel Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ike Perlmutter insists The Avengers be all-male, as supposedly 'female action figures didn't sell'. [2, Ch. 13] Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige counter-insist and ensure Black Widow is an Avenger, and Joss Whedon also has S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill as a prominent character [2, Ch. 13] Robert Downey, Jr. strongly suggests Tony Stark be the center of the movie, Joss Whedon 'persuade[s]' Robert Downey, Jr. 'the movie [will] be stronger [as an] ensemble piece [2, Ch. 13] Joss Whedon makes an offhand joke during viewing of a final cut that it's a shame Tony's schwarma joke to rest of the Avengers has no callback. Kevin Feige and Jeremy Latcham orchestrate finding a schwarma restaurant near the premiere, and The Avengers post-credit scene is filmed at the premiere, and added to the film [1, pg. 156] Joss Whedon spontaneously creates the MCU's villain: 'Whedon had an idea for the movie’s post-credits scene, one that stemmed from his deep knowledge of Marvel comics. In a vignette, he revealed that Loki’s Chitauri army was on loan from Thanos, one of the most terrifying villains in the Marvel cosmos, a large purple alien with a corrugated chin and a serious infatuation with death. Whedon wasn’t trying to set up Thanos as the Avengers’ next foe. Rather, he just wanted to provide an explanation for where Loki’s army came from, seasoned with a bit of fan service. For its part, Marvel Studios was so focused on making sure that everything came together for The Avengers that it approved the inclusion of Thanos without much thought about what that might mean for the movies to come.' [2, Ch. 13] Uh, yeah, so just imagine how much hard work and blood, sweat and tears but also creative insight, foresight, but also luck went into all of that. And given that Iron Man and The Avengers are arguably the films that launched the MCU into the stratosphere (no disrespect to the other, phenomenal Phase 1 films), the MCU might look very very different and possibly much less creative/fulfilling without Mr. Jon Favreau and Mr. Joss Whedon as two particular examples, not to mention all the other sung and unsung heroes. As a thought exercise given what's said above imagine the MCU without either of those two directors (also actor and writer, respectively). Writers, directors, cinematographers, producers, actors, editors, VFX animators, etc. etc. etc., all can be critical to making these stories and films what they are.