Home Entertainment Fox may have found their DAREDEVIL director, but they'll have to give up some FANTASTIC FOUR rights to pull it off

Fox may have found their DAREDEVIL director, but they'll have to give up some FANTASTIC FOUR rights to pull it off

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You may remember that not too long ago we reported that when it came to the proposed reboot for the Daredevil superhero film, 20th Century Fox found themselves in what is colloquially referred to as “up a rivulet filled with feces, without some manual mobility device”.

Director David Slade had pulled out of the project at the last minute, leaving Fox with an almost impossible deadline of getting a new director in place and getting the film into production before the October cutoff or have the Daredevil character rights revert back to Marvel.

But it looks like Fox and Marvel/Disney may just have worked out a deal that could be beneficial for both parties.

 

Variety is reporting that Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The Grey, The A-Team, Narc) is interested in taking over the currently vacant director’s chair on the Daredevil reboot, which if you ask me – and it really doesn’t matter if you didn’t, because I’ll tell you anyway – is a phenomenal choice. Especially since his vision is supposed to ditch the cartoonish wire-fu heavy film we got previously, in favour of a “Frank Miller-esque, hardcore 70s thriller” version of the Hell’s Kitchen hero. Carnahan has already proven that he can capably bring the gritty, noirish nature required for Daredevil as well as the more over the top comic book sensibilities to the table, if needed. The only problem is that Carnahan, who is set to do a Death Wish remake for MGM as well as the unknown Continue for Fox themselves, may not be ready to go in time for the cutoff date of October 10th.

But thanks to some clever negotiations with Disney and Marvel, Fox may just have scored an extension on their deadline giving Carnahan enough time to set up the film properly (I’d be assuming that he would be writing as well, as he’s done on all his previous films). And in exchange, Fox would be willing to hand the film rights of “certain key Fantastic Four characters” back over to Marvel.

Notice how I did the finger quotes around “certain key Fantastic Four characters”?  That’s because it’s highly unlikely that the Fantastic Four themselves – Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Human Torch and the Thing – would be up for grabs, especially since Chronicle helmer Josh Trank is also looking to give them the reboot treatment soon, but some of the major characters that exist in that space, like Silver Surfer, Galactus and Uatu the Watcher could possibly be on the transfer sheet.

With the Marvel cinematic universe heading into the stars next with their introduction of Thanos and the Guardians of the Galaxy, having those cosmic based characters around would be great, especially Galactus who played a significant role in the Annihilation comic story that brought the Guardians together in the first place. Galactus of course also used Silver Surfer as his herald, so it only makes sense that the two go as a package deal.

Also, and this is purely just my geeky brain rambling here, if they ever wanted to do a Planet Hulk adaptation (which done correctly has about an 100% chance of making me poop my pants with glee), then Silver Surfer would also be needed for that story.

While I’d personally prefer it if Marvel got back all their character’s rights, just so that my fanboy side can flip out at the prospect of them all occupying a shared universe, the possibility of Carnahan taking over Daredevil is just too good to pass up.

Last Updated: August 7, 2012

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