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Daredevil Ready for His Closeup
New Regency Productions, a Fox-based company, now has the rights to the character, acquiring them after the hero's lengthy layover at Columbia Pictures. Along with the hugely buzzing X-Men (out this weekend) and the Fantastic Four, this marks Fox's third major project featuring Marvel players.
In addition to acquiring the big-screen rights, New Regency has announced that Mark Steven Johnson has been hired to pen the screenplay. Johnson, writer of the Grumpy Old Men movies and Simon Birch, could be competing for the director's chair with Shaft helmer John Singleton. While attending the Ellis Island premiere of the X-Men, Singleton, an admitted comic book fan, said he'd love to direct a movie about the crimson-clad crime-fighter.
As any Marvel fan could tell you, Daredevil was blinded as a child by radioactive chemicals. The accident, however, intensified his other senses, which he put to use battling baddies. Although an accomplished martial artist with gymnast-like moves, the hero leaves the world conquerors to the likes of the X-Men, fighting instead against urban crime and corruption. Meanwhile, his alter ego, Matt Murdock, is a ferocious criminal defense attorney who rarely loses.
The Daredevil deal represents a renaissance for the cinematically cursed comic book company. Sure, there were groan-worthy TV vehicles, featuring stars like David Hasselhoff playing Nick Fury, but it was the big-screen bombs that really ripped comics fans. Embarrassing celluloid versions of Captain America and the Punisher went straight to video, and Roger Corman's Fantastic Four didn't even make it that far, hidden away to prevent tainting future theatrical versions of the franchise (it now survives only as a much-bootlegged fan video).
The Marvel losing streak was only recently broken, thanks to Wesley Snipes 1998 vampire-slaying adaptation of Blade and the likely success of X-Men. And with the forever-in-development Spider-Man movie finally getting the green light, who knows, being called a mutant may soon become a compliment.
Looking down the pipeline, Marvel superhero flicks may become more common than Survivor knockoffs. Aside from Spider-Man and Fantastic Four projects, the Hulk is lined up with major backing, as is supernatural biker Ghost Rider, a reported favorite of motorcycle fan and Marvel Films CEO Avi Arad.
And Blair Witch distributors Artisan Pictures picked up movie rights to a whopping 15 Marvel characters, including superpatriot Captain America, wise-cracking assassin Deadpool and African adventurer Black Panther.
But comic geeks beware--with most of these projects pegged with $15-30 million budgets (less than half of X-Men), the results might be less than Marvel-ous.
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