Kevin Feige Says Chloe Zhao’s Eternals Pitch Was the Best He Ever Heard

If Marvel’s 2021 release schedule stays on track, Eternals will finally be hitting theatres on November 5th. The movie is being helmed by Chloe Zhao, who is currently getting a lot of awards season buzz for her film starring Frances McDormand, Nomadland. During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige spoke about Zhao’s pitch for Eternals and said it was the best pitch he had ever heard! Pretty high praise coming from the studio that has created so many huge hits.

“Not only does Chloe make remarkable, small, personal movies in a remarkable, small, personal way, but she thinks in grand, cosmic, gigantic terms, which fit perfectly with what we wanted to do. Eternals is a very big, sweeping, multimillennial-spanning story. And she just got it,” Feige shared.

At the beginning of the month, Zhao spoke about penning the movie’s script in addition to directing.

“I am the writer on the Eternals, the credits just aren’t updated yet,” Zhao recently shared while promoting Nomadland. “I don’t know what it would be like if I don’t write the films [I direct]… In the writing process is where I bring in my sensibility, that’s a huge part of it. I’m creating situations that will allow certain cinematic language to come in that I’ve learned on my last three films.”

“I have been a fan of the MCU for the last decade. So, I put the word out there I wanted to make a Marvel movie and the right project came to me,” Zhao said while speaking with director Barry Jenkins in a discussion for Variety. “I just wanted to work with that team. Again, back to world-building. It is my favorite thing. That’s why I love ‘Star Wars.’ There is a world that is so rich. I wanted to enter it and see what I can do. It’s the same as what you’re saying. Can I put a spin on it while still being true to the essence of it? That’s exciting to me. It’s not that different than me going to the world of rodeo cowboys and saying, ‘My spin on that is going to be this,’ and it’s a collaboration. The chemistry of that, when it’s right, it could be very exciting.”

Are you excited to see Zhao’s work on Eternals? Tell us in the comments!

Eternals is currently scheduled to hit on theatres on November 5th.