Some of the biggest names in Hollywood, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, Sinners director Ryan Coogler and Deadpool and Wolverine Filmmaker Shawn Levy has a simple strategy for dealing with the incessant noise of internet fandom: disconnect from it.
The group came together this week to offer a rare, candid look at what it really takes to make blockbuster movies, and how not to lose your mind in the process.
The occasion was a celebration at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where the Kevin Feige Division of Film and Television Production was officially dedicated in the producer’s honor.
All three men are USC graduates, and the centerpiece of the evening was a candid conversation between them that touched on Internet culture, drug test disasters, and the messy, unglamorous reality of making big movies.
Feige, widely considered the most successful film producer of all time, has been characteristically blunt about online fandom.
Marvel has always had a close relationship with its audience, dating back to the letters pages of its comic books, but the Internet has significantly changed the nature of that relationship.
“It can be used with such force now that you have to be careful,” he said. The sheer number of theories, opinions and hot-button viewpoints on YouTube, TikTok and Reddit, he warned, is something filmmakers engage in at their peril.
“You can read everything about everything and have a different point of view. You can go crazy. So we don’t do that.”
Levy echoed this sentiment, framing it as a matter of professional survival.
While working on large-scale franchise projects, he is currently in post-production on the next Star Wars film, the ability to turn off becomes essential.
“You have to know when to put it down, shut up and go back to what was in your mind and in your voice when you started,” he said.
The conversation also touched on something filmmakers rarely discuss publicly: the gut punch of a bad test screening.
Feige described the experience with striking honesty, noting that for Marvel, public previews take place after a major investment has already been made.
“It happens when you’ve already spent almost $200 million on a movie and you show it to people and they’re like, ‘What was that?'” Levy didn’t shy away from what comes next.
“And then panic sets in. You panic, you feel like shit, and then you go back to work.”
What made the conversation particularly compelling was Feige’s admission that he spent years thinking that Marvel was particularly bad at getting movies right the first time.
He has since learned otherwise.
He turned to Coogler in thought and asked if Sinners, the most nominated film in Oscar history this year, was perfect from its first cut.
Coogler laughs. “No,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s perfect even now, brother.”
It was a disarming human moment from three filmmakers at the top of their industry, a reminder that even the world’s greatest films are a work in progress until the credits roll.
