Recently the rumor mill churned out some details regarding a potential 20th Century Fox and Marvel character rights swap in the works. Fox, which currently owns part of Daredevil, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, has until October 10th to reboot Daredevil, lest the licences revert back to Marvel — unless, that is, Fox chairman Tom Rothman can convince Marvel to allow the Man Without Fear to stay with Fox past the deadline in exchange for the rights to use characters from the Fantastic Four universe, including the world-eating supervillain Galactus, rumored to play a key role in future Marvel films.
According to Showbiz, Fox has been in talks with Joe Carnahan (The Grey, Smokin’ Aces) to direct a “Frank Miller-esque, hardcore 70s thriller” version of Matt Murdoch and his adventures as Daredevil, which sounds awesome, and frankly, like a huge improvement over the 2003 iteration of Matt starring Ben Affleck. However, in order to pursue their reboot, they would need an extension on their Oct. 10th cutoff date, after which the property reverts to Marvel. In exchange for this extension, Marvel would receive the rights to use Fantastic Four characters, namely Galactus and the Silver Surfer, his herald.
However, another rumor has popped up that this deal won’t be going through after all, mainly because Fox isn’t too keen on rebooting Daredevil without more financial assistance, especially if it means losing the rights to some pretty iconic characters: “Those insiders said that with Josh Trank aboard to direct, ‘Fantastic Four’ is a big priority and the studio would be crazy to give away a cornerstone villain. Especially when the studio is very lukewarm about rebooting Daredevil,” reports Deadline. “While Joe Carnahan has come to the studio with a take, it sounds like Fox is ready to let it revert to Disney-owned Marvel, unless Disney is interested in co-financing.”
Unfortunately, this means we won’t be getting to see a good Fantastic Four film, nor will we be seeing a Daredevil remake until after 2015, when Marvel wraps up its post-Avengers movie craze. I wasn’t exactly a fan of the original Daredevil, but I love the style of director Joe Carnahan, and a dark, Miller-esque reboot of the film sounds just fine to me. Furthermore, even if Fox does bust out the Fantastic Four franchise for a remake, they left a lot to be desired last time, and I’d rather have Marvel do it — who wouldn’t love to see the Thing duke it out with The Hulk in an Avengers film, or Galactus battle Thanos for galactic supremacy, leaving disastrous consequences for everyone in their path?
What would you like to see? A Fox Fantastic Four film, or Fox rebooting Daredevil and letting Galactus and the Silver Surfer revert to Marvel?
(via MTV Splashpage and Showblitz.)
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