‘Ridiculous’ behind-the-scenes truth about superhero films laid bare in The Franchise

In the era of Marvel and DCU, HBO’s new comedy is highlighting the absolutely bonkers moments playing out behind the scenes.

I’ve never been in a Hollywood heavyweight’s office before, but it’s exactly as I’d always imagined.

Massive posters of recent box office hits are splashed across the walls. Scripts conspicuously stamped with “CONFIDENTIAL” rest on the heavy desk. Huge windows offer views across the sprawling film lot. A bright, plush couch is over to one side.

Maximum Studios branding everywhere.

I’ve been granted access to the private den of the producer behind one of Tinseltown’s biggest films … with one major twist.

It’s impossible to tell at first glance – every detail’s been perfectly captured by a team that knows the industry better than anyone – but I’m on the set of The Franchise, premiering on BINGE next month. The new HBO comedy series, created by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) and Armando Ianucci (Veep, The Thick of It) and written by Succession’s Jon Brown (who is also the showrunner), explores the dysfunction behind-the-scenes on a superhero blockbuster.

Per the logline, the show “shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question – how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? Because every f**k-up has an origin story.”

The “workplace comedy” goes behind-the-scenes to showcase how a tentpole film gets made. Picture: HBO

We’re at one of the most iconic film lots in the world, Leavesden Studios in England, and the cameras are rolling on an ensemble scene featuring the likes of Himesh Patel, Aya Cash, Billy Magnussen and Richard E. Grant.

At times, the production is enormous. The sets and costume design are staggeringly ambitious. Other times, they’re shooting in an exceptionally mundane corporate space, akin to scenes in The Office.

After all, at its heart, The Franchise is simply a “workplace comedy”, as one of its executive producers, Jim Kleverweis, tells me.

The superhero genre is one that’s sparked plenty of critical debate within the industry in recent years – legendary director Martin Scorsese has even blamed it for “killing cinema” – so is this new comedy celebrating these franchises … or roasting them?

“We’re really about the crew that’s working on the floor, and their interactions – we’re not satirising superhero films … It’s about the dynamics of the crew,” Kleverweis explains.

For it to be as realistic as possible, they made a point of hiring production staff who had worked within that section of the industry.

“So we have a design team that have all worked on superhero films, production designer who’s worked on [James] Bond movies and superhero films, same with our costume designer and our hair and makeup designer, and then a lot of the crew on the floor,” co-executive producer, Julie Pastor, says.

“So everyone really knows how these movies are made and what that looks like … There’s endless comedy to be found in that dynamic.

“ … It makes it funnier on a day-to-day basis, because we find ourselves in this meta universe where everyone in the crew is seeing themselves reflected in front of them on set every single day.”

Stream The Franchise from October 7 on BINGE and from October 10 on Foxtel, available on Hubbl.

It’s a film within a show – with all the trimmings. Picture: HBO

The constant source material in the form of a full production team being so readily available is certainly handy, but it also created significant – and genuinely hilarious – logistic issues during filming.

To stay on top of who’s a member of the crew and who’s a member of the cast, identical security lanyards were made but in different colours. Black is Maximum Studios, the fake franchise movie company, and the real passes are yellow.

In fact, almost every real detail – office space, monitors, cameras, production trucks – has a Maximum Studio duplicate.

“It was quite fun because people started noticing their [Franchise] counterpart on set,” costume designer Sinéad Kidao tells me with a laugh, adding that her own on-screen doppelganger was a bit too realistic.

“It was quite funny to watch her on set, and a lot of the cast kept forgetting that she wasn’t part of the crew … I think she found that quite funny. And she sort of was looking at people in a certain way, taking a step back and sort of staring … and then I realised, ‘oh no, is that what I do?’”

We’re in the depths of the costume department, surrounded by elaborate superhero (and villain) designs, all displayed on mannequins and colourful sketch boards.

Covering the walls is the inspiration behind it all: endless photos from behind-the-scenes on real blockbuster film sets. Chris Hemsworth as Thor, standing alongside his stunt double. Jason Momoa and Amber Heard in Aquaman. Actor Dan Stevens in 2018’s Beauty and the Beast – in costume as The Beast, but nothing like what we saw on screen. Instead, in the picture taken during the rather serious ballroom scene as he descends the stairs with Belle (Emma Watson), he’s wearing a comical full-body, padded grey suit and cap, with lifts underneath his feet.

Scattered elsewhere are plenty of other A-list leading stars, in full costume, accessorised with Ugg boots and gowns as they wait between takes.

These real moments, and the unintentionally funny images they produce, are at the core of what’s being reflected in The Franchise.

The absurdities in the day-to-day production of real blockbusters were the inspiration behind the show. Picture: HBO

But going behind the curtain of a world we rarely get to see presented one obvious problem.

The Marvel and DC Universe are famously eye-wateringly well-funded – and this series needed sets, costumes and props to look exactly like they’d had access to those same uniquely deep studio pockets.

Which, of course, it hadn’t.

“We had to have the ‘film’ element of it, but then also all the stuff around the edges of it that had to look as real as it possibly could,” production designer Neal Callow explains.

His previous work includes two Bond movies (Casino Royale and No Time to Die) and Captain America: The First Avenger, and so is very familiar with the ins and outs of “modern, big-scale filmmaking.”

“What we’re trying to do here is kind of recreate that, albeit on a television budget, to get the scale in,” Callow says.

On the day I’ve been invited on set, a rather perfect example of how they’re achieving that superhero scale has presented itself.

I won’t spoil it for you – but it’s elaborate and involves one particularly grotesque prop of a body part that will haunt me for some time to come.

Despite all the dramatic visuals, it’s an incredibly ridiculous conversation between Magnussen, who is pitch-perfect swinging between insecure and overly confident as Adam, the actor playing superhero Tecto, and the film’s long-suffering producer, Daniel (Patel) that’s pulling all focus.

Adam, the quintessential Hollywood leading man decked out in his superhero Tecto gear and planted in the middle of an other-worldly set, is anxious about the public’s perception of him after getting some tweets about a recent photo shoot, and is attempting to be casual as he desperately seeks reassurance.

Magnussen as Adam (as Tecto). Picture: HBO

In each of the dozen takes I witness, Magnussen swaps out a pop culture reference joke for an alternative, each one eliciting an even bigger laugh from everyone watching (on monitors, out of earshot of the cameras).

“We are just doing everything truthfully,” Kidao had said to me earlier that day, summarising the sentiment echoed around every department I popped into, populated by staffers with years of experience on real tentpole movies.

“I think if you start to lean into what you think is funny or you try to exaggerate it, then it’s just not as funny because the reality … well, sometimes the reality is so ridiculous that we think the audience probably wouldn’t even believe it.”

The Franchise premieres Monday, October 7 on BINGE, available on Hubbl, and Thursday, October 10 on FOX8 and is available On Demand.

Originally published as ‘Ridiculous’ behind-the-scenes truth about superhero films laid bare in The Franchise