DaCosta says Marvels script limited her vision; Hedda next

Nia DaCosta is speaking candidly about the different pressures and creative constraints she encountered directing The Marvels, a film that underperformed at the box office and drew scrutiny over its scripting process. She says a core difference between that project and her next film, Hedda, lies in the strength of the script and in how a director’s vision is allowed—or not allowed—to take shape within a large studio system. DaCosta also notes that she is moving forward with a very different, more intimate project, while continuing to navigate the lessons learned from Marvel’s production environment and its ongoing script-development practices.

DaCosta has described The Marvels as a complex experience in which the script—despite her involvement as a co-writer—was a limiting factor. She recalled that the process of writing and revising a big-budget superhero film under the Marvel banner was plagued by a lack of a definitive, solid script, a situation she says “wreaked havoc on the whole process.” By contrast, she cited her work on the forthcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple as a markedly positive filmmaking experience, calling it “one of the best filmmaking experiences I’ve...