Carnahan's DAREDEVIL Falls Apart, But Glimpse What Might Have Been...

Remember that fantastic looking deal where Fox was going to hand Marvel the rights to Galactus and Silver Surfer in order to get an extension on their production deadline for Daredevil?

Yeah, that's not happening any more.

Thanks to Joe Carnahan's twitter feed, we now know that Fox is giving up on Daredevil after all.  He firmly asserts that Fox didn't pass on his pitch; they just ran out of time to get the movie up and running, which would seem to imply that Fox's negotiations with Marvel must have broken down earlier this week.  I'm inclined to believe Carnahan's claim, especially after he posted two versions of his "pitch reel," which gives us a good feel for the 70's-style crime story he was pushing.  There's lots of great vintage footage here (The Warriors!  "Caaaaan yooouuu DIG IT?") along with comic panels, clips of the previous Affleck film and some fantastic musical selections. (I'm posting the more violent of the two.)

I'd watch the shit out of that movie.

So what happens to Daredevil now?  While the deadline isn't up until October and there's still the possibility of some crazy last minute deal, in all likelihood Marvel will soon retain the rights to The Man Without Fear, at which point they'll probably do a whole lot of nothing.  They've essentially structured out the next 3+ years of movies in advance and, as I've already argued, the more time Marvel spends in outer space, the less relevant Daredevil feels as a character in that universe.  While a blind superhero/lawyer does feel tailor-made for Marvel's yet-to-be-determined TV show, I doubt we'll see it happen.  I get the sense that Marvel is more interested in building a show that is as closely connected to their cinematic universe as possible without having to actually use any of their big name talent.

I'm not gonna lie, everything about this story makes me a little bit sad inside.  I guess I'll just have to comfort myself with the idea that Marvel might actually do something interesting with the character, even though it'll probably take about a decade.