The Avengers’ Original Writer Zak Penn Dubs Joss Whedon A Bad Person Over Having Him Fired From The Marvel Project(Photo Credit –wikimedia/Imdb)
Advertisement
If you look at the writing credits of 2012 The Avengers you will find the name of Joss Whedon who also directed the movie along with The Russo brothers. The Marvel blockbuster was originally supposed to be written by Zak Penn, but he was ousted from the movie. Now, in a latest interview, Zak, who managed to get the story credit, has taken brutal digs at Whedon, calling him rude and unpleasant. Scroll down to know the scoop.
Zak Penn’s script was tossed out the moment Joss Whedon was hired for The Avengers in 2010. The former has now shared the story behind getting replaced with Whedon. The Avengers starred Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, among a few others.
According to Comic Book Movie, The Avengers’ original writer Zak Penn, in his latest interview, stated, “All the other directors we had been talking about, Joss wasn’t on the list. I heard he was going to rewrite the script himself. He didn’t even want to meet with me, which, by the way, I always call the writer I’m replacing. I feel like that’s courtesy.” Penn further shared what went behind the scenes after he reached out to Whedon personally. “He said to me, ‘No, it’s not awkward for me. I’m rewriting you.’ It became pretty apparent that he had less than zero interest in, in any way, having me involved with the movie,” revealed Penn.
After getting fired from the job, Zak Penn was worried about how to break the news to his children, which proved to be frustrating in many ways. “My kids have grown up while I’ve been working on it,” said Penn.
He added, “They’ve all told their friends about it. What’s going to happen when their friends are like, ‘Your dad didn’t work on Avengers?’ [Whedon responded,] ‘What’s going to happen when my kids think that you wrote half the story?’”
The former The Avengers writer added, “I think he’s a d*ck. I think he’s a bad person, and it was really surprising. Remember, my bonus is based on my credit. So literally millions and millions of dollars, which is not the issue here, but that just came out of my pocket and went into Joss’ pocket.”
For the unversed, Zak Penn is also known for writing the screenplay of hit movies like Ready Player One and Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy. He also wrote the superhero TV show Alphas. Penn has also created the upcoming sci-fi thriller series Beacon 23, which stars Game of Thrones actress Lena Headey.
For more pop culture stories, stay tuned to Koimoi.com
