Selma director Ava DuVernay is having a phenomenal year. With dozens of award nominations, including a number of wins, her film has certainly made a significant cinematic impact. She was recognized for her directorial efforts with a nomination from the Golden Globes, and while she didn't get a Best Director nod from the Academy Awards, her film is up for the coveted Best Picture. Riding high on her recent successes, she recently entertained the idea of heading up a Marvel movie.
With Selma still earning a ton of accolades and even proving to be a modest box office winner, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if DuVernay were given the opportunity to helm a big blockbuster, and it was while talking with Hitfix that the idea of working on a film for Marvel Studios came up. While the filmmaker did admit that she isn't much of a comic book buff, she did add that she loves the idea of approaching mythical stories. Said DuVernay,
I'm not a big comic book fan, but I know I love to deconstruct heroes, deconstruct myths. I probably want to do some origin story. You know, where you get to the core of it before they get their powers. I don't know. I don't know about Marvel. I know I love to tell all sorts of stories, so I don't say no to anything. Everything is possible.
DuVernay may not be the biggest fan of superheoes, but she clearly has passion for the art of storytelling - which can go a long way. The fact that she enjoys breaking down character and getting to the nitty gritty core of her stories would absolutely serve as a benefit to her, should she ever be presented with the opportunity to work on a film within the MCU. After all, let's not forget that Bryan Singer was never too big on X-Men comics before taking on the movies, and his filmmography is filled with some of the best titles the comic book movie genre has to offer.
That being said, a director jumping from small drama like Selma ($20M budget) up to a gigantic tent-pole movie like Thor: Ragnarok or Black Panther (which will both likely exceed $150M) could also lead to a lot of issues and could end with devastating consequences. While the idea of DuVernay doing something with Marvel at this point is impossible, it's also likely she'll need to lay some bigger groundwork and probably study up on the comics before they hand over the reins on a project of such magnitude. After all, Jon Favreau did Zathura before he was trusted with the Iron Man franchise.
We realize DuVernay's hat being tossed into the ring really only resulted from her being asked "if" she would be interested "if" offered, but for the sake of speculation, what upcoming (or even unannounced) Marvel project(s) do you think she might be a good fit for, if any? Using my observational powers, the obvious projects, with her being both female and African-American, would be Captain Marvel and Black Panther, neither of which have directors attached just yet.
If Ava DuVernay really wants Captain Marvel, though, she'll have to start campaigning fast, as we recently reported that Angelina Jolie was offered a jaw-dropping $20 million to take the helm of that film. Will it happen? We'll have to wait to find out.
