When Daredevil hit theaters in 2003, comic films were finally starting to impress on a regular basis, but there were still clearly some bugs that needed to be worked out.
The movie, which starred Ben Affleck, wasn’t exactly stellar, but Daredevil’s definitely an intriguing character who could certainly benefit from a reboot. (Daredevil was directed by Mark Steven Johnson, who also screwed up another Marvel character that deserved better, Ghost Rider).
And as several websites recently reported, there’s an interesting little race going on with the rights. According to Collider, the rights for Daredevil are going to revert back to Marvel on October 10, and Fox wants to do a reboot, soon. David Slade (Twilight: Eclipse) was going to direct, now Joe Carnahan (The Grey, Narc) is up for the gig.
Early reports claimed Fox and Marvel were going to make a trade for the rights where Disney, who owns Marvel, would let Fox keep the rights for Daredevil, if they could have characters from Fantastic Four like the Silver Surfer and his nemesis Galactus. As you may recall, Fantastic Four is also apparently going to be rebooted with Josh Trank of Chronicle directing.
Yet Deadline says this isn’t true, as there’s not going to be a character/rights swap because Fantastic Four is a big property at Fox, and they really want to move ahead with Trank at the helm.
As Mike Fleming reports, Fox “is very lukewarm about rebooting Daredevil. While Joe Carnahan has come to the studio with a take, it sounds like Fox is ready to let it revert to Disney-owned Marvel, unless Disney is interested in co-financing.”
With the success of The Avengers, several titles with groups of superheroes are currently on track to be made, and perhaps Hollywood logic is that Fantastic Four can be transformed into a similar franchise. It’s funny that Fantastic Four’s never been done right as a movie either, even after three attempts, but maybe with fresh blood it could finally be pulled off.
Still, it will be interesting to see if Disney will remake Daredevil, and if there’s any truth at all to the reports about superhero bartering between rival studios.
