Since Marvel Studios started as their own in-house studio and released
Iron Man back in 2008, they have used a process of working titles and strange production company names while filming their movies. The working titles usually relate to the movie in some sort of way, as well as the production company name.
But why do they do this?
Let's start with the working title concept. This is done to somewhat conceal what the actual movie is that they're filming. The concept can be traced back to the early 1980s when films like
E.T. had the working title
A Boy's Life and
Blade Runner had the working title
Dangerous Days. For Marvel, this worked in the beginning. But now that Marvel Studios is one of the most successful studios in Hollywood if they are filming in your town... you'll know it mainly because of local and online news sites calling the production by it's real movie title. Only the crews refer to themselves and their employers by these working titles and production company names.
Here are just some of the working titles used for Marvel Studios movies so far:
Iron Man 2 was
Rasputin,
Captain America: The First Avenger was
Frostbite,
The Avengers was called
Group Hug,
Iron Man 3 was
Caged Heat,
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is called
Freezer Burn and it has been newly announced that
Guardians of the Galaxy will be called
Full Tilt.
Moving on to the strange production company names Marvel Studios uses. It is a similar strategy used to conceal the fact that Marvel Studios is filming but instead they use production specific company name for each film. Why this is done remained a mystery until The Daily SuperHero reached out to a legal source, who specializes in intellectual property, for some hopeful clarification.
According to the legal source, a different production company name is being used in order to protect Marvel. The source mentioned how for each of Marvel Studios' productions a new LLC is created. In other words, a brand new production company is created for every Marvel movie.
Without seeing any paperwork, the legal source did say this is a professional opinion based on information that is available but also stated how each movie budget is most likely provided to each new LLC production company as it's "start-up fund." Now if something terrible happened to any employee working on a particular film, per the source, the injured could only pursue legal action against that production company LLC and not Marvel Entertainment, or Disney. Of course an injured person can try to go after the bigger fish but if their paychecks say the production company name on it, then that's who they can go after.
An example of some of the production company names with their respective film are as follows: Vita-Ray Productions and Vita-Ray II Productions was, and is, for
Captain America: The First Avenger and
Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Asgard Productions UK II Limited was for
Thor: The Dark World and now Infinity Works Productions UK will be for
Guardians of the Galaxy.
An interesting way of doing business, especially when put into context that any employee who wanted to pursue legal action due to injury, or whatever, can only go after the production company and not the bigger fish. Smart.