Everyone assumed that any outstanding, unproduced Marvel film projects at 20th Century Fox would simply be scrapped, once Disney finalized its buyout. But there is a glimmer of hope for Noah Hawley‘s ‘Doctor Doom’ movie, which was originally announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2017. Reportedly, the creator of FX’s ‘Legion’ completed a script last June, but with the merger looming, didn’t feel optimistic that the movie would actually get made. In fact, Fox had until this month to start filming anything if it wanted it to actually get made before Disney began calling all the shots, and… well, they didn’t do that.
Fox’s licenses to the ‘X-Men’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ franchises will now shift over to Disney subsidiary Marvel Studios and its president Kevin Feige. But it sounds as though Feige is interested to see what was in store before determining their future. In fact, Hawley stated that he had met with Feige to discuss ‘Doctor Doom’, as he revealed to The Hollywood Reporter while attending SXSW.
Apparently, during their meeting, Feige asked:
“Are you still working on it?”
To which Hawley replied:
“Should I still be working on it?”
Hawley states that his take on the classic Marvel villain is as “a geopolitical thriller more than a standard superhero movie. It begins with Doom putting a dome over Latveria, the fictional European country he rules. He later invites a female journalist to be his voice to the world, meaning its protagonist would be someone without superpowers.”
Doctor Doom has appeared in three Fox movies. Julian McMahon appeared in the role in 2005’s ‘Fantastic Four’ and 2007’s ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’, while Toby Kebbell portrayed him in 2015’s reboot. Neither version accurately captured the villain from the comics, the ruler of the fictional Eastern European nation of Latveria, who is one of the smartest scientists in the world and also a practitioner of magic.
Hawley will be busy, as he is set to launch the latest season of his other FX series, ‘Fargo’ this fall, with Chris Rock in one of the lead roles. After that, he plans to direct a film version of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel ‘Cat’s Cradle’, which he has been working on for years, but now plans to have ready to hit theaters in 2020.
Do you think Marvel Studios should create a movie focusing on ‘Doctor Doom’? How should they approach this complicated character?
