Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ Gets Director Scott Derrickson
While the news on a certain other Marvel project continues to be troubling, other projects are still moving forward – like Doctor Strange, which is part of the next ‘Phase’ of Marvel’s filmography following Avengers: Age of Ultron. And now the film has a director, as producer Kevin Feige and Disney have tapped Scott Derrickson to helm.
This could be exciting for the property, which is not as well known as the big Avengers group but has a steady following going back decades, in part due to its genre. Though Strange – and that was his last name before he got transformed, thank you – has gone through some different iterations over the years (including, at one time, some readers thinking the writers were into drugs in order to create such psychedelic concepts), the basic thrust of his origin has stayed the same: Doctor Strange is a former neurosurgeon who serves as the Sorcerer Supreme, and a primary protector of Earth against magical and mystical threats (you can read more about the character and his universe here).
Though it had a direct-to-video title some years ago with a Tibetan-mountain-training aspect, Strange is one of those Marvel characters that comic readers have been curious to see get a big screen treatment for a while. Derrickson, meanwhile, has made three films, with two being horror (The Exorcism of Emily Rose and 2012’s hit Sinister) and one sci-fi (the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still), with another, Deliver Us From Evil, coming out this summer as a departure in to the crime-thriller genre.
He’s certainly a capable hand at various genres, and from just seeing Sinister (which was co-written by former critic and author C. Robert Cargill, who one wonders could return to write the script with Derrickson now that he’s on board) he has a strong grasp of character development. Whether this will translate with so much dark spectacle as with a master of sorcerer-arts will wait to be seen.
And, already, the actor mill is brewing with rumors, including a couple of sites citing Jared Leto as being approached for the titular doctor (Johnny Depp is another). With a director on board, the release could be for 2016, which would also coincide with Captain America 3. More on that as it develops.
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