According to The Wrap, Marvel Studios is eyeing Selma director Ava DuVernay to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe and direct one of its upcoming films, either Black Panther or Captain Marvel.
For those who aren’t familiar with DuVernay’s work, she’s one of the most coveted directors in Hollywood after directing the critically acclaimed drama about Martin Luther King’s campaign to secure equal voting rights. Selma was a Best Picture nominee at this year’s Academy Awards, and won for Best Original Song.
Conspicuously absent, however, was a Best Director nominee for DuVernay, who was lauded by critics for her work on the film.
Marvel should be foaming from the mouth over potentially getting a director as talented as DuVernay. She’s the real deal. The franchises’ lack of diversity among its filmmakers has never been more apparent. Every single “Phase Two” movie to date has been directed by a white guy. While DuVernay isn’t going to be hired solely because she’s an African American female, it would be welcome news to see her break up the boys club.
The big question is, will DuVernay want to jump on board a superhero franchise after being known for her work on such a successful historical drama? She has plenty of options. It’s tough to call. That path didn’t work out so well for Ang Lee.
Lee was nominated for Best Director and won for Best Foreign Film for his work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Like Selma, the film received great press and positioned Lee as a hot property in the industry. His next full length feature film was Hulk. That film was a giant mess.
Marvel let Lee shoot the film in his own style, which resulted in weirdly cut scenes and montages meant to resemble comic book panels. While it was solidly acted and directed, Hulk held up so poorly that Marvel decided it needed to reboot the character five years later. Wacky CGI, Lee doing the motion capture himself and somehow making the Hulk boring didn’t fly with an audience, and the film only managed to gross $245 million at the box office against a $137 million budget.
While Hulk wasn’t the kiss of death for Lee, as he went on to win Best Director for Brokeback Mountain two years later and made other great films, his big superhero blockbuster was entirely forgettable.
Marvel has more creative control these days. The MCU movies all have shades of the directors’ personal style in them, but they follow a very similar, successful format. Rumours suggested Edgar Wright left Ant-Man because his film didn’t fit the mood they were looking for, as actor Evangeline Lilly pointed out:
“…I feel like, if [Marvel] had created Edgar’s incredible vision — which would have been, like, classic comic book — it would have been such a riot to film [and] it would have been so much fun to watch. [But] it wouldn’t have fit in the Marvel Universe. It would have stuck out like a sore thumb, no matter how good it was. It just would have taken you away from this cohesive universe they’re trying to create. And therefore it ruins the suspended disbelief that they’ve built.”
“I saw with my own eyes that Marvel had just pulled the script into their world. I mean, they’ve established a universe, and everyone has come to expect a certain aesthetic [and] a certain feel for Marvel films. And what Edgar was creating was much more in the Edgar Wright camp of films. They were very different.“
While I’d love to see Wright’s version of Ant-Man, Marvel’s demands make sense. Their movies need to be cohesive, and if they don’t work with one another, it kind of defeats the purpose of having them share the same universe.
With that said, it would be great to see DuVernay direct one of these films. Black Panther and Captain Marvel are brand new to the MCU — providing black and female lead characters, respectively — and to have a distinctive voice behind them is important, even with Marvel’s heavy influence. My preference would be to see DuVernay take on Black Panther and have Michelle McLaren take on Captain Marvel, but if DuVernay lands either job, it would be quite the coup by Marvel.
Black Panther, set to be written by Mark Bailey and starring Chadwick Boseman as the title character, is due for release on July 6, 2018. Captain Marvel comes out the same year on Nov. 2, and will be written by Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out). The titular role has yet to be cast.
