The rumor that Doctor Strange would get the Marvel movie treatment is closer to reality, as the website Twitch reports that scriptwriters Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer have turned in their draft of the script to the House of Ideas. The next step will be finding a director.
Donnelly and Oppenheimer are the writing pair behind the new Conan movie and this past weekend’s Cowboys and Aliens flick – and depending on your P.O.V. you may not have high hopes for Doctor Strange.
One of the early rumors early on was that Doctor Strange and other lesser known Marvel character would be getting the mini-movie treatment, ala the Saturday morning serials, that would act as the lead into the feature Marvel presentation.
So today, we asking you, the Major Spoilerites, what would you prefer – A full on Sorcerer Supreme movie, or a series of smaller shorts that lead into a feature Marvel/Disney movie?
8 Comments
Having seeing the Doctor Strange : Sorcerer Supreme 2007 cartoon movie, there could be a definitely worthwhile movie to be made if done right. I just think he’s not one of the wildly popular characters of the comic universe, so it might be a good idea to have some mini-live action shorts based off the character. The snippets would be a good introduction to audiences about Doctor Strange and the Universe of characters it supports.
And I haven’t seen the 1970’s film in forever too..
I could see it as either one, but I don’t know if the audience is there for a continued series.
On the other hand, what little I know of his origin story would seem to lend itself well to the standard action movie story arc–the fall from grace, the hard work to climb back and then eventual redemption by working with nefarious ungodly forces.
Hmmm…that last part might get them into some trouble. :)
There’s way too much exposition going to have to happen if they need to get a cold audience up to speed on the Marvel Mysticverse in a single movie, let alone Strange’s personal development. Just telling his story to get the rest of the picture on screen would still be very self-involved and isolating with regard to the rest of the Marvel movies, unless they included him in the Ghost Rider sequel (but isn’t that the wrong production company?) first and built off of that.
The Marvel Movieverse is largely a science fiction realm, even with Thor, and Dr. Strange would blow that cosmology away, even if there’s a heavy quantum mechanics angle to the magic. Perhaps having him appear to be a crackpot at first, and having magic be less than blatant (such as appearing to be coincidence, hunches, hedging and double-talk but which is unerring and consistent, with the uninitiated entirely unable to see the world they can’t believe in until they have the epiphany that Strange is right) but then there’s the risk of making the audience not like him for too much of the movie, feeling cheated or ill-used, or of having it come out as condescending or a Deus Ex Machina. Maybe having Thor know about the Sorcerer Supreme and rudiments of the wider multiverse, but Tony Stark be totally a disbeliever and having both argue their points on-screen could keep the audience satisfied that they’re not being left behind for the sake of adding a new character to the Marvel Movies. The problem is that Strange wasn’t an ongoing Avenger, and didn’t get included in their stories very often.
I’m thinking Dr. Strange is too much to do all in one movie and as a character has too much to explain to get shortcutted or to leave out parts of for the sake of his appearing to be even more engimatic. That could come off like a Sorcerer’s Apprentice kind of lame. So I’m gonna say episodic would work better.
Cereal…I mean serial….
Back in 1978, just a year after Star Wars debuted, there was a slew of television shows based on Marvel comic book characters. The only successful show was, of course, The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby. If I remember right there was also a Thor TV show which was so dreadfully bad I have permanently blotted it out from my memory. This was followed by a TV pilot for a Doctor Strange TV show. Probably because it was special effect heavy, the show wasn’t picked up for production but the pilot aired – only once – and I remember vaguely that I thought it was pretty good at the time, though the actor who played Doc had a soup strainer and hairdo that made him look more like a cheesy porn star than Doc Strange and the late 70s clothing styles really date the pilot movie. I am thinking that Doctor Strange would make a very good Live Action Movie especially if Marvel and Disney throw some real money at it.
I’d love to see a live action Dr. Strange movie, though it probably would be best to have him introduced in a movie before his comes out, to feel out the audience. Dr. Strange is a very complex character, and if not handled properly he would definately be viewed as a deus ex mechanism or would be short changed in his story.
Would anyone else like to see Guillermo Del Toro direct a Dr. Strange movie or do many of you feel that Hellboy is enough from him? I like his visuals and imagery and the way he handles his brand of fantasy and I wondered what he might be able to do with a movie about the Occult and sorcery.
Or does anyone have any other ideas of who you’d want to direct?
I’d certainly like him to be in on the design, at least. I’d love to see his version of Dormammu’s dimension, Dormammu and the Mindless Ones.
Then again, I’d love to see Studio Ghibli do an animated Doctor Strange for the same reason.