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.

Galactus And Silver Surfer Could Menace The Avengers After All

At the start of Comic Con, I told you that Fox had lost David Slade as the director of their upcoming Daredevil reboot.  However, we expected a fairly quick turnaround as they're facing an October 10th deadline to start production, otherwise the character rights revert back to Marvel.  Now it looks like the studio is close to bringing on Joe Carnahan (The Grey and the much under-appreciated A-Team) to replace Slade, but the-powers-that-be are worried that they're not going to get the train rolling in time, so they're negotiating a deal with Marvel which could prove beneficial to everyone, most of all audiences.

In return for giving Fox an extension on their Daredevil production deadline, Marvel would take back the rights to the characters of Galactus and Silver Surfer.

THAT IS AMAZING!

If the deal goes through, it would be the first time that a studio has relinquished the rights to a major comic character since Marvel embarked upon their ambitious quest to bring a unified Marvel universe to the big screen.  And these aren't minor cameo characters; the Avengers are already heading into space, so Galactus, the giant eater of worlds, and his metallic herald would be a perfect fit as to antagonize any/all of the Avengers down the road.  While Silver Surfer was actually pretty well realized in the unfortunate Fantastic Four sequel, Fox's treatment of Galactus was downright tragic, so his presence in Phase Two (or Three) of the Marvel-verse can only mean good things for the character.

As much as I'd like to say this looks like the beginning of a new era of character flexibility, paving the way for Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Avengers to all appear in each others movies regardless of studios, I'm still pretty skeptical.  This is a straight up even trade, and moreover it feels like a trade for characters that neither studio is really interested in.  Josh Trank is already moving forward on his Fantastic Four reboot, and while no villain has been announced, I assume he simply wasn't interested in using Galactus or the Surfer and so Fox saw them as useful collateral to keep a hold on what they see as a franchise character.  Meanwhile, as the Marvel-verse gets more cosmic in scale, someone like Daredevil certainly doesn't feel vital to the roadmap Kevin Feige has laid out.

Still, we can dream...