LOS ANGELES - Curt Geda is the new kid on the X-Men: Evolution block, but he's really old school when it comes to super-heroes.
An animation veteran whose credits include the Batman and Superman shows, Geda join the X-Men staff as a director for the third season. His first episode, "The Stuff Of Heroes," airs this Saturday on Kids' WB! and features a surprise villain.
Geda joins Frank Paur and Gary Graham in the directing rotation. He replaces Steve Gordon, who now works at Dreamworks but still is responsible for the X-Men: Evolution character designs.
"Curt Geda worked for me as a storyboard artist a few years ago when I was directing Batman," X-Men: Evolution producer Boyd Kirkland says. "And then he worked his way up at Warner Bros. into a director position on Batman Beyond. I've worked with Curt for a number of years at Warners, and he's a good guy. So when Steve couldn't come back for the third season, I was glad to get Curt."
During a recent trip to Film Roman - where X-Men: Evolution is produced - The Continuum sat down with Geda for a short interview in which he discussed X-Men and the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker movie.
Following is an edited transcription:
The Continuum: How did you wind up on X-Men: Evolution?
Geda: I've been moving around a little bit recently and things are changing quite a bit in the industry. I went to Disney for a little bit, helping out on Kim Possible. I went to Warners to work on Zeta (Project) last year, but didn't know what was happening next. Boyd had been mentioning that if he did need a director, he'd always want me on board. And when Steve decided to stay at Dreamworks, I took his position on the show. I always thought they were doing a great job on the show.
The Continuum: Were you a fan of the X-Men comics?
Geda: Sort of. I'm very slow in coming around to comic books I first met Boyd on Batman: The Animated Series like 10 years ago, and to tell the truth told, I never had read a comic book the whole time. I had just the vaguest knowledge. Then I kind of got hooked. (X-Men) was all anybody was talking about. I was a very Johnny-come-lately into comics. At that time, Jim Lee was doing the X-Men and I was impressed with his artwork, so I was buying X-Men at the time. I'm still very new at this, though. I don't have the years and years of knowledge that others seem to have. Frank (Paur) could tell you anything, anywhere, ever.
The Continuum: How does show X-Men compare with the Batman shows?
Geda: The soap aspect (laughs). Their private lives and who loves who is more complex and that's always going on behind the scenes. There's almost nothing equivalent to that, whether it was in Batman Beyond or Superman or Batman or other shows I was working on. So that's quite different.
But in other ways, it's quite a bit the same - with the way I'm approaching it with what I see as film or what I see as staging or story-telling. So that part's similar.
The Continuum: You're dealing with powers perhaps more on X-Men?
Geda: Well, with Superman, there was more of a science-fiction aspect, so that helped a lot. It was a lot of fun to be able to do anything really in a story than to just treat them strictly as humans. I kind of liked the science-fiction aspect to it.
It's a lot of fun, the whole idea that anything can happen. And with flying characters, it's a lot more fun than endlessly walking or running. The bigger scale is a lot more fun to me.
The Continuum: Can you say anything about your first episode?
Geda: It's bigger than life, anything can go crazy kind of thing. I even got some friends who had worked on some shows with me - either Superman or Batman or Batman Beyond - and told them, "It's just like the kind of thing we've always done. It'll be a lot of fun."
It was about 400 feet over (in length), so it was kind of hard to get it down. But I loved the action and it was some of the best stuff I have ever seen.
They've all been good. My second one is a very interesting one with Mystique and Scott. It kind of becomes a fight between the two of them in a dark basement, which is kind of weird. It had a lot of fun stuff and a lot of action.
And there's another one with Rogue. The scripts I've worked on have been among the best stuff I've ever gotten. And the final one, well… (laughs).
The Continuum: Do you have a favorite character?
Geda: Actually, it was great to start out with (Saturday's villain). And then they were asking who I wanted on my door [the creators all have one character on their doors] and we were almost fighting over gets (Saturday's villain).
Then I thought, I won't be greedy. And being a Curt, I thought I'd take Nightcrawler. He looks pretty funny. And I liked what they did with him. I think he's one of the more fun aspects of the show by far.
But, actually, I like all of them. Mystique is one of the best models I've seen. With my last two shows, I had her in it.
The Continuum: How would you describe the look of the show?
Geda: It's a very good-looking show. I love the colors, and, I must say, Steve Gordon, with the models, he's really quite a genius that he can supply all of the models for the show -- literally. It's very rare. It's such a strong style, too.
The Continuum: You directed Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Were you glad to see the "uncut" version released?
Geda: Oh, yeah. I knew it was a big risk. Even the last week we were in editing, we were all just thrilled with what it was, but it was right during the election campaign, and I was like, "This is going to be made into the poster boy with everything that is wrong with the industry right now."
> Even when I read the script in the first place, I was like, "OK, this is really over the top, but I'll do my best."
So I was disappointed when all that (Warner's decision to edit the movie) happened. I'm not even sure it was all totally necessary, but Home Video wanted something for a very young audience. They wanted something G-rated, and that's not what we gave them at all.
The Continuum: Doesn't it show that there's a more sophisticated audience for the show? As soon as the first version of Return of the Joker came out, people clamored for the original version.
Geda: You always want the best one. When I first read Return of the Joker, it was a little dark even for my tastes. I wasn't going to sanitize it or anything like that. I didn't feel it was my job to change the story and I knew what was expected of me.
But to some degree, I think there should be something that's a fun action/adventure show that doesn't go too dark or be too sinister. I think there's such a thing. In some ways, Raiders of the Lost Ark is still a film ideal for me - a lot of fun, a lot of excitement and not necessarily too dark.
The Continuum: X-Men is sort of like that, although it has a lot of tones to it.
Geda: Most of these (episodes) have been very action-oriented, which is exactly what I love as far as staging and almost anything could happen. Like I say, we're always searching for the reason you care about what happens to everybody. And I think the writers have done a great job with that, which is always the trick. In a way, I can still take the smallest premise and take action upon action upon action, but it's important that you really care about some kind of outcome.
The Continuum: Is it hard coming into the middle of a show?
Geda: This is actually a very pleasant place to work, so it hasn't been a problem at all. Everybody's been very helpful in making me welcome. I'll want to see my first episode, just the same. Even though I've directed for seven or eight years and over 50 shows - and The Return of the Joker - it will be great to see these, to tell the truth.
