There’s a buzzed-about new film taking on the Marvel Universe, and I’m not talking about “Deadpool & Wolverine.” As that blockbuster-to-be hits theaters worldwide, a new short film made its debut Monday morning on X, formerly known as Twitter, before spreading to other platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. “Is Now a Good Time?” is written and directed by Jim Cummings, who also plays the lead role of Kyle – an employee of Disney Marvel, who arrives at the home of a dying young boy (Daniel Sanchez) to screen the new “Captain America 4” for him. Anyone familiar with Cummings’ work and brand of uncomfortable humor from films like “Thunder Road” and “The Beta Test” won’t be surprised that things soon go very, very badly.
Now that the film has been out for a few days, we wanted to get into some spoiler territory with Cummings, so please watch before proceeding!
Much of the satirical humor comes from jabs taken at the entities of Marvel and Disney including their lack of gay representation in the MCU and long running times. In fact, when the boy is left alone for three hours and 45 minutes to screen the movie, he passes away. A mortified Kyle tries to do his best with his corporate speak, telling the boy’s mother (Leticia Castillo), “He’s with Iron Man now.” An emotional Kyle then returns home to his gay Taiwanese boyfriend (Daniel Liu), bemoaning that he can’t keep doing this job.
Of course, there is a reference to Martin Scorsese’s disdain for the Marvel movies, and Cummings even gave the filmmaker a shout-out in the Tribeca Film Festival program, where the short first premiered. (He’s not sure if Scorsese has seen it but his daughter Francesca Scorsese was on the festival’s Shorts jury.) The choice to distribute on X was driven simply by Cummings wanting people to see it. And the gamble seems to have paid off. “Within 24 hours, it got more viewership than most of my short films ever receive,” he notes, estimating it reached a half-million viewers across all platforms in the first day. “Also, this is the place that I’ve seen the most conversation about Marvel and movies, so it seemed like the best place for it.”
Cummings actually worked for Marvel, doing visual effects on 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” when he was employed at Industrial Light and Magic. But after this film, he doubts he’ll be making an official return to the MCU anytime soon.
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Glad to see you’re okay and Marvel hasn’t gotten to you yet.
Not yet. But I have heard from a couple of people on the inside, that people are watching it, that it’s circulating in the offices. One person was asked in a meeting if they had seen it, and they had to lie and say that they hadn’t seen it.
Do you know people at Marvel or other insiders who helped you with the story?
There are people I know and friends on the inside, but I had a lot of different conversations with people before I wrote this. It was inspired after I read pieces on Reddit about deathbed visitations and the Make-a-Wish requests carried out by Marvel Disney. I learned they really send someone out with a laptop in a Pelican case to screen it. And I know how the sausage gets made in terms of corporate doublespeak and PR companies.
Your films often contain scenes I don’t think we’d see in more mainstream productions. In this short, the child dies.
That actually happened in real life. It happened after we shot our film — someone died during a viewing of the movie “Dune II.” It became a little controversial because the PR company wanted to make it sound like a good thing, but the internet immediately said, “The movie is too long!”
When you wrote it, did you worry that was going too far?
We thought it was the most poignant thing you can do when discussing mortality. It’s also surreal to see images of the entertainment industry juxtaposed with deathbed decisions. Like a photo of the Ghostbusters hanging out in the cancer ward is a very strange, surreal image. So I enjoyed the comedy of this guy going to do his thing and only realizing too late that he has no business being there. A stranger should not be present spouting corporate lines at a person’s death[bed]. The death was a way to have Kyle awake to his own humanity.
What are your feelings about the Marvel movies, because I genuinely love them, but I also laughed at every jab you take at them.
Honestly, I have a lot of trouble understanding what’s going on when I watch them. And having worked on one of them for several months, it’s very difficult for me to enjoy them. I know a lot of the very talented artists that work on these movies, and they don’t generally watch them when they come out. So a lot of it is this Court of Versailles, where you’re on this leash of money to a giant corporation, and you’re getting paid to do the artwork that you’ve been trained to do. I also know the world of Hollywood doublespeak and bullshit, so it’s doubly difficult to appreciate it. I’m seeing it through the lens of, “This is a product; they’re trying to sell toys.”
I remember watching Han Solo pick up Chewie’s blaster in “Episode VII.” He says, “Give me that thing,” and he shoots the stormtroopers. Then he says, “I like this thing!” Han Solo has worked with Chewie for 30 or 40 years and he’s never shot that gun. I see it as them just trying to sell the blaster toy. And for them to use the last moments of this character on the silver screen before they kill him, it’s disgusting.
At the same time, you obviously know this world because there are so many references to the films and mythology.
I watched all of them twice. But I also just talked to a lot of people and read a lot about what was being discussed. There are some great YouTube videos that really break everything down brilliantly. But this is another issue I have with the movies – there’s so much that I miss. There’s so many inside jokes that you feel you’re missing out unless you watch everything. It’s all a means of hooking children into the product; it’s very complicated. At the same time, I would never say somebody shouldn’t enjoy them. Let’s all like what we like.
There’s a remark about how Marvel Disney is beholden to China, so they don’t allow gay characters – the exception being films with Black actors, since China won’t watch them anyway. Where did that idea come from?
That’s a story I heard about a recent Disney diverse movie that had ghosts in it. According to people we spoke to, a Disney executive got tipsy at the wrap party and said, “It’s kind of shocking we haven’t gotten noted to death.” And an exec said, “Well, that’s because the film has ghosts in it. China doesn’t allow ghosts, so you can make the film as progressive as you want.”
Did you always know Kyle was going to be gay in your film? Having him talk about the lack of gay representation in Marvel is another amazing moment.
Yes, I really wanted to talk about the representation in the movies because when I was at ILM it was something they talked about – having a gay superhero someday. And they did it in “The Eternals” with Phastos but they had more creative freedom because it was Brian Tyree Henry in the part. I wanted Kyle to be the ultimate victim of conscience that he works for this government that doesn’t support him or his Taiwanese boyfriend. He has the least to gain by putting on the airs and working in corporate entertainment. That’s how it feels to not be listened to.
We tried to cast a gay actor and did a broad casting search, but the people we wanted were very nervous about doing this. One actor we really love has a show in development at Hulu — a subsidiary of Disney — and his legal team told him he shouldn’t do it. It started to get down to the wire, and I was like, “All right, I already know the lines.” Plus, it felt like asking someone else to take that risk wasn’t fair. We were a week out from shooting when I finally said, “I’ll just do it.”
I’ve floated this idea before that you often appear in your own work because you feel bad asking people to do some embarrassing scenes.
My characters are always so put upon. In “The Beta Test,” I was crawling through a parking lot and went through three or four suits. The “Thunder Road” character is just an exercise in humiliation. But also, as a writer-director, it’s really nice to have 24-hour access to your lead actor. I think we’re getting to the point, though, where people will work with us. Next time we’ll get someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
