Oct 3 2008Fox Considering Relaunching 'Daredevil' with Aim of Being Watchable
One of the lessons we've learned through the comic book movie boom of the last decade is that, when adapting a superhero franchise for the screen, the writer of Grumpier Old Men, Simon Birch, and Jack Frost should not be trusted, because that's how we get Daredevil, and Daredevil was punishment. (We actually didn't learn that lesson, because the same guy made Ghost Rider a few years later.) But another lesson we've learned is that, like in love, or with the Hulk, sometimes we get second chances. Love/Hulk can overcome!
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that Fox co-chair Tom Rothman just revealed the studio is seriously considering trying to relaunch the Daredevil franchise, presenting it this time in a way that would not be awful. From IESB:
Tom Rothman: A Daredevil, to use your words, reboot, is something we are thinking very seriously about.IESB: Would you do Daredevil as dark as The Dark Knight?
TR: Would it be as dark? I don't know because what it really needs is, it needs a visionary at the level that Chris Nolan was. It needs someone, it needs a director, honestly, who has a genuine vision. What we wouldn't do is just do it for the sake of doing it. Right? What we try to do is to get a creative engine for it, that really had a great vision for it, that's what we would look for.
Well, at least Fox isn't under the impression that "darkness" somehow equals quality, because, looking back at Daredevil now, I bet director Mark Steven Johnson already thinks he delivered the same kind of dark, gritty film as Dark Knight. You know when he saw that the Joker had a scarred, carved-in smile, he must have been like, "Yeah, like I didn't do that with Bullseye's forehead--five years ago! BULLLLLLSHIIIIIIIIIIT."
So yeah, Tom Rothman, get someone with a vision to make a new Daredevil movie, but do not let that person be Mark Steven Johnson again.
Reader Comments
1. koala - October 3, 2008 3:45 PM
DD wasn't that bad after they beefed it up to an R, it was when they tried to give Elektra her own movie that the franchise tanked.
2. Aerialgreen - October 3, 2008 3:52 PM
Hey IWS writer! don't mess with my Bennifer 2!, Daredevil and Elektra got married, leave them alone~! *posts rant on youtube*
3. CaptainMorgan - October 3, 2008 4:01 PM
I think Steven Segal should be the next DareDevil.
4. CaliZero - October 3, 2008 4:08 PM
It was a fine movie. It was the studio pressure to push up (at the time very popular) Garner role that ruined a lot of the film. Really, look at the "Director's Cut" and you'll find a much butter (though still flawed) film.
5. txarcher - October 3, 2008 4:54 PM
Nothing wrong with the first movie. Could it have been darker? Sure. But studios now a days are always trying for a PG-13 to get the most people in the seats. Now the elektra movie, that's another story, the screenplay on that one was a big let down. Everyone can joke all they on Ben and Jen all they want, but in the final seconds of the movie leading to the end, all I wanted to do was leave the theater and beg for #2!
6. Brandon - October 3, 2008 5:16 PM
The casting was the biggest problem with the first one. But both movies got different versions on DVD and showed that MSJ can tell a good story. It's his directing that is the problem.
7. TetraShiva - October 3, 2008 7:32 PM
I've always heard the Director's Cut was decent.
8. Elmo - October 3, 2008 8:58 PM
Hey I actually watched that Daredevil thing last weekend
(cause I was flipping around and I saw a bald Colin Farrell and said "OMFG bald Colin Farrell!!!")
and it was average dumb superhero movie, so I guess it was ok then
you could do more with it...
*get some freaky guy with one giant eyeball to fight the blind guy*
9. bill hudon - October 5, 2008 3:25 PM
If Frank Miller doesn't do the remake the producers are smoking crack!!!! Take it from a fanboy who knows. 1. Miller is the reason Batman went Dark Knight 2. Daredevil has never been better than 158-181, who made that all happen? Frank Miller!!!
10. Viking - October 6, 2008 4:13 AM
Well take a different character it's obvious that 'the people' don't want a blind, shitty gay-devil with a stupid womanly rip-off of Turtle Raphael. The action of both movies made me tear my eyes out and put them in my ears just to avoid the bad acting. This movie was even worse then 'SS Doomtrooper'.
11. Me - October 6, 2008 1:24 PM
I hope they do! Daredevil is an awesome character... the film should have been done darker the first time... it was decent, but could have been amazing. It was way too cartoonish with over the top acting and no real depth to the villians.
12. Vince Lombardi - October 6, 2008 2:54 PM
Any remake without Ben Affleck has to be better. Of any Ben Affleck movie, not just Daredevil.
Christopher Reeve, dead and paralyzed, would have made a better Daredevil.
Hayley Joel Osment would have made a better Daredevil.
Madonna would have made a better Daredevil.
Y'know who would make a better Daredevil? Don Rickles!