overheat naughty: 'Avengers' Fans Should Feel 'Exhausted And Fulfilled,' Joss Whedon Says

At South by Southwest film festival, 'Cabin in the Woods' scribe tells MTV News, 'It's a ride.'
By Kara Warner

Joss Whedon
Photo: Michael Buckner/ Getty Images

Joss Whedon has a big year ahead of him. In a little more than a month, fans will finally get to see the long-delayed horror movie "The Cabin in the Woods," followed a few weeks later by the release of one of this summer's most highly anticipated tent poles, "The Avengers."

When MTV News caught up with Whedon during the South by Southwest film festival press day for "Cabin in the Woods," we asked him how his superhero film is coming together.

"The most satisfying thing about 'The Avengers' is that soon I will finish it," he said with a weary smile. "That's quite an undertaking — although listening to Alan Silvestri conduct an 80-piece orchestra didn't suck. It was a really beautiful experience," he said of watching the Oscar-nominated composer at work. "He did such a great job: You're listening to live music and watching your movie form in a way that it doesn't until it has that music. That was exciting."

Another exciting aspect of the filmmaking process was interacting with his A-list actors: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg and Tom Hiddleston, to name a few.

Whedon said he enjoyed "just having them all." "When they would be together, the energy that they would give each other, the way they play off each other, the way they protect each other narratively, making sure that whoever they were coming up against had as much juice as they did. It would be easy to imagine that they would be all be like 'me, me, me,' and it was always 'us, us, us,' and that was really fun," he explained. "Except sometimes they would just gossip so much and talk. 'Guys, we're rolling. We have to make a movie. This isn't a party; this isn't the green room.' "

The "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" mastermind said he hopes audiences feel just as worn out at the end as he was making it.

"I want them to feel exhausted and fulfilled," he shared. "Not unlike 'Cabin,' it's a ride, and we put the screws to them. We really put the characters through it, and we want the audience to be with them every step of the way and come out of it going, 'That was an extraordinary experience, and now I want to pay to see it again.' "

Someone who didn't have to wait to pay to see the finished product is Whedon's "Cabin" co-writer and director Drew Goddard.

"Drew's seen it: He saw the very first assembly," Whedon said. "He was one of the first people I came to and said, 'Where did I go right?' "

Goddard could only offer a one-word review via third person: "Drew's been told he's not allowed to say anything about it," Goddard said with a smile. "But it's awesome."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Related Videos