This is one of those instances where its best for entertainment reporters to slow down a bit before reporting “breaking news,” but then again this story is so tangled I’m not sure we can get to the bottom of it yet, either.
Anyway, before Disney purchased Marvel and Marvel Studios began to take control of the cinematic adventures of its own characters, Marvel pieced out the rights to their superheroes to the highest bidder. That’s why Sony makes Spider-Man movies (which leaves the webslinger out of any Avengers movies) and 20th Century Fox has been making X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil movies. Now if any of those studios let the rights lapse for a certain period of time they revert back to Marvel Studios, which is obviously very eager to get its hands back on characters to add to their ever-expanding cinematic universe.
Fox has done fine with pumping out films in the X-Men franchise, but its Daredevil franchise petered out after 2005’s awful Elektra. Fox has been trying to get a Daredevil reboot in production before October 10, which is when Fox’s rights to the character expire. David Slade (30 Days of Night, Twilight: Eclipse) was set to direct the film from a script by Brad Caleb Kane (TV’s Fringe) which adapted Frank Miller‘s hugely influential Born Again storyline. Both names subsequently disappeared from the project, with newcomer David James Kelly now tackling the script. According to Variety, Fox has been trying to convince Joe Carnahan (The Grey) to take over the director’s chair to make a “grittier” Daredevil… with a very interesting twist.
See, Variety also reported that Fox is trying to negotiate with Marvel to extend its rights by offering to return the rights to The Fantastic Four characters the Silver Surfer and villain Galactus to Marvel. Since Marvel is taking its cinematic universe in a more cosmic direction with Guardians of the Galaxy and the arrival of Thanos, this could be a very tempting offer, especially since the last Fantastic Four movie featuring both characters was almost as awful as Elektra.
But wait! Deadline counters that report by saying that there is no such swap in the works, and Fox is willing to let the Daredevil rights expire in favor of keeping the Fantastic Four franchise together, which Fox plans to reboot with director Josh Trank (Chronicle). So I’m not sure how Daredevil would fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe — despite being created in 1964, the character didn’t even join the Avengers in the comics until last year — but either way I’d just love to see a Daredevil film that got the character right.
So… good money says we won’t see another Daredevil from Fox. What’s Robert Rodriguez up to after Sin City 2?
Recent Comments