By Elisabeth Rappe,Cinematical
October 3,2008
Early last month, Variety published a rather scathing look at 20th Century Fox's summer receipts and mentioned the studio was digging through its collection of superheroes with an eye on getting some of that blockbuster mojo back. It wasn't surprising to see more X-Men spin-offs and sequels being talked about -- but what did raise a few eyebrows was the inclusion of Daredevil. The Man with No Fear had a pretty disastrous debut in 2003, and his girlfriend/nemesis Elektra fared even worse.
IESB caught up with Fox's co-chairman, Tom Rothman, and pressed him on the subject of revisiting Daredevil. It's more than a passing fancy in the trades -- Fox is thinking "very seriously" of a reboot. Says Rothman: "I think that the thing the Hulk showed, although it did what it did, is that it is possible that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance. That it is possible. And I think that you see that when they did Batman Begins, the first Nolan movie, that you can have made some mistakes along the way or movies that the audience wasn't that crazy about and then given the proper amount of time and the right creative vision behind it, you can, to use your word, reboot."
And would they go the dark and gritty route of The Dark Knight, which is becoming the go-to style for just about every comic book property? "Would it be as dark? I don't know because what it really needs is, it needs a visionary at the level that Chris Nolan was. It needs someone, it needs a director, honestly, who has a genuine vision. What we wouldn't do is just do it for the sake of doing it. Right? What we try to do is to get a creative engine for it, that really had a great vision for it, that's what we would look for."
In all honesty, a "real world" approach would work extremely well with Daredevil -- certainly, he has more believable villains than Batman. And being owned by Fox, he won't be able to participate in all the crossover fun that Marvel Studios is doing, so you might as well keep him in his own Hell's Kitchen. For me, the question isn't whether the character deserves another shot (and I think he does), it's whether Fox has learned from its micro-managing past, and could truly let someone have their "great vision" in a comic book film.
Read more!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Tom Rothman Talks 'Daredevil' Reboot
Monday, September 15, 2008
Comic Franchises For Fox?X-Men spin-offs and Daredevil reboot
by Orlando Parfitt, IGN UK
UK, September 10, 2008
Variety has let slip some interesting gossip regarding Fox's plans for future superhero movies.
In an artcle about the studio's less than-profitable summer line-up, it reveals that Fox has decided to look into the remaining comic book characters they have the rights to in an effort to replicate their rival's success.
Aparently one idea is a Young X-Men project that, similar to the animated series X-Men: Evolution, will follow the main characters as teenagers.
A second idea is a spin-off based around Deadpool -- the wisecracking mercenary from the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which Fox will release next summer) to be played by Ryan Reynolds.
The final possibility mentioned by the trade mag is a reboot of the Daredevil franchise, which ground to a halt after only one instalment when Ben Affleck played the blind superhero back in 2003.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Jason Statham Wants to Be Daredevil
By Elisabeth Rappe,Cinematical
August 6,2008
This is all casual talk, occurring over beers at the Hard Rock Hotel (oh, to have been at the bar next to them), but it's a fun bit of rumors and dream casting nonetheless.
Geoff Boucher of the LA Times' Hero Complex blog chatted up Jason Statham and Frank Miller on, of all things, Daredevil. The three started talking about a potential reboot of the character, with Statham taking on the role of Matt Murdock. The hard-hitting Brit is excited at the very prospect. "Absolutely, just give me the chance, I would love to be Daredevil." (The emphasis is all Boucher.) In fact, when Boucher suggested he'd make a better Bullseye, Statham looked as though he'd hit him with his pint glass. "Forget Bullseye, I want to be Daredevil!"
Miller thinks he should be Daredevil too -- and apparently got quite quite a twinkle in his eye at the very thought of another movie. That's not surprising, since the character made his career, and I could see him ushering a Daredevil reboot into gear sooner than penning a sequel to 300. (At least, that's what I hope and dream would happen.)
