X-Men Filmmaker Simon Kinberg Reveals What He Learned From Directing Dark Phoenix

Simon Kinberg has been involved with genre cinema for the better of two decades. He helped guide Fox's X-Men franchise from X-Men: The Last Stand forward, helping serve as the architect of what was once one of the largest superhero franchises outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Often producing films or serving as a scriptwriter, Kinberg got his directorial debut on X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the last major flick from the Fox franchise before it was swallowed whole by Walt Disney Studios.

In a recent chat with DiscussingFilm, Kinberg—now promoting his sophomore outing as director, The 355—Kinberg says being the director of a film taught him a lot about the process outside of actually filming the movie.

"I learned a lot from that first time directing, you learn a lot from the first time you do anything, I mean, the lessons would be too long for this conversation," Kinberg told the website. "But I learned a lot beyond just the directing and the editing of the movie, I learned a lot about, you know, the marketing of the movie, I learned a lot about dating and distribution and things that I thought I knew everything about from producing."

Because directors are ultimately the face of the movie behind the camera, Kinberg went on to say it's humbling that so many people are working on one shared vision.

"When you're a director, you're just a little bit more immersed in the marketing process, creatively," he added. "So what I learned from Dark Phoenix, that I brought to this, was just to really make sure that there's no category, department, or aspect of the movie that you take for granted. As a director, because there's so many people that are working at the same time trying to fulfill your vision, you can take for granted some things. If you don't keep an eye on as much as you can possibly keep an eye on, you'll end up with compromised versions of your vision."

Dark Phoenix is now streaming on Disney+ and available wherever movies are for purchase.

What X-Men characters would you like to see join the MCU first? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments below or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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