Jake Schreier will apply Thunderbolts* lessons into new X-Men blockbuster
Jake Schreier is planning to take the lessons he learnt directing the Marvel blockbuster Thunderbolts* into his upcoming X-Men movie for the studio.
Jake Schreier is taking the lessons he learned on Thunderbolts* into his new X-Men movie.
The 43-year-old director has been tasked by Marvel to helm a new movie about the superhero ensemble and intends to draw on his experience directing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) flick that was released in cinemas earlier this year.
Jake told Empire magazine: "I can't say anything about it, but we've started work on X-Men, and that's obviously very, very exciting.
"There are so many things that I didn't know about before I started (Thunderbolts*).
"The biggest learning curve for me was the proportion of the action to the more emotional, character-driven scenes, and how, even though it's more shooting days than I've ever had, they get eaten up quite quickly by the action stuff. By the time we got to the end of it, it felt like, 'Oh, now I feel like we get how to do this a little bit better.'"
However, Schreier has promised that there will be more set-pieces in the X-Men film as he makes the most of Marvel's vast resources.
The Paper Towns director said: "Look, who gets to do that?
"(On Thunderbolts*) we're in the middle of nowhere in Utah, in a gorgeous location, owning a road, and filming in 100-degree heat, or finding yourself on the second-tallest building in the world. These are very special experiences."
Jake revealed earlier this year that the Pixar animated classic Toy Story 3 served as an unlikely source of inspiration during the making of Thunderbolts*.
He said: "The first thing I did was make a reel of reference films.
"I had Toy Story 3 in there. It wasn't as focused on a genre as much as dynamics amongst characters. They all have that dynamic of a team that is thrown together."
Schreier explained that he was particularly inspired by the scene where Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the gang link hands when faced with death via a furnace.
He said: "That sequence works so well because you've come to care about these characters so much. Can they get out of the trash can together?
"It really is just Toy Story 3. Forget Tarantino. That's my only reference."
The director explained that he wanted to explore the issue of mental health in the superhero movie - which stars Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan.
Jake explained: "You're talking about a group of characters that have done a lot of bad things, and maybe are struggling with feeling good about themselves.
"There's an element that does speak to mental health, and loneliness, and how some of the darkness that we experience in our lives can't be necessarily fixed, but can only really be made lighter through connection and finding others."
He added that Thunderbolts* felt "different" from a typical superhero film.
Schreier said: "I think people are maybe expecting just another version of Suicide Squad.
"But the story felt different. There was a flip of what people expected it to be."
