While Marvel haven’t officially announced “Dr. Strange” or its director, Scott Derrickson (“Sinister” the upcoming “Deliver Us From Evil“), it’s clearly happening. And it appears they’re kind of starting over on the script level as Deadline reveals that Jon Spaihts (“Prometheus”) has been hired to write the script. Wait, hasn’t it already been written? Yes. The first draft was credited to Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. But it sounds like Spaihts is mostly starting from scratch.
Meanwhile, one of the early casting rumors seems to have panned out. At least, it appears that Jared Leto is on Marvel’s short list along with Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch. What that means? The studio is interested in these actors possibly playing the role. Have the actors even been contacted? Are they free, interested, etc? It still might be early days and as “Father Of The Bride 3” news recently revealed, just because a studio wants to go ahead with a project, it doesn’t mean the star knows about it yet.
Spaihts has also written Universal’s reboot of “The Mummy,” alien invasion pic “The Darkest Hour” and “The Black Hole” remake. He’s known for writing the Keanu Reeves sci-fi film “Passengers” which actually has yet to be made – The Weinstein Company recently kicked it off their release schedule and it’s unclear if it’s actually been shot yet.
Derrickson’s a screenwriter too (Atom Egoyan‘s “Devil’s Knot,” and most of his own directing projects) and it’ll be interesting to see if gets to weigh in at some point. And he thinks he’s the right person for the job too. “I think when you consider the work that I’ve done it makes sense that he’d be my favorite comic book character, at least in the Marvel universe,” he told JoBlo today. “Probably the only comic character in that mainstream world that I’m suited to. I feel such an affinity for the character and the story and the ambition of those comics, especially the original Stan Lee and Steve Ditko “Strange Tales” – I think those are my favorite of all of them. The entire history of the comics is extraordinary.”
No release date is set, but it’s believed one will be revealed at Comic-Con in July.
