The director of the original Marvel Cinematic Universe Doctor Strange movie, Scott Derrickson, has revealed why, given certain conditions, he would return to helm a superhero film.
Derrickson discussed why he took on the challenge of directing MCU’s first Sorcerer Supreme entry in an interview with ComicBook. The filmmaker aspired to do something interesting with the character, and the same motivation would also inform any decision he would make about a return to the genre. Derrickson explained his reason for doing the first film, stating, “I didn’t make Doctor Strange because it was a Marvel movie or because it was a comic book movie. I made it because it was specifically the Doctor Strange comics, which I loved and had really strong, powerful feelings about, and felt like I was the right filmmaker to adapt that.”
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The first Doctor Strange film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, introduced audiences to the mystical side of the MCU, which was ground-breaking. Derrickson believes what would bring him back, and indeed the fans, was material that signaled the genre’s evolution. “So I would for sure go back to comic book cinema if I was working with something that I felt was a good evolution of the genre,” he said. “I do think that we’re at a point in time where audiences myself included, don’t want to see anything that’s too close to what’s been done. I’m much more interested in the daring spinoffs than the daring genre experimentation with comic book cinema. I think that the way you get audiences to reengage with it is by evolving it significantly. That would be my big requirement to go back into that kind of IP-driven comic book world.”
Derrickson, who has directed other movies such as The Black Phone and Sinister, insisted that fans and audiences wanted originality from studio offerings, including their more established properties. “I do think that audiences want original programming in their event movies now,” he said. “That is a major shift that has happened, and it’s significant, and I just hope that studios don’t continue to flog the sequel franchise filmmaking in a way that costs us more time before they realize, hey, the audiences are really ready for new material.”
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Derrickson, however, conceded that the studio properties considered would have to be the right fit for a nuanced adaptation or bold swing, continuing, “You can make something that’s original and people haven’t seen before from IP, but it has to be the right IP.”
Derrickson’s Doctor Strange is currently streaming on Disney+.
Source: ComicBook
The Black Phone and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson reveals what would make him return to direct another comic book genre film. Read More