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Daredevil reboot was "Serpico meets Frank Miller" - SciFiNow

Daredevil reboot was “Serpico meets Frank Miller”

Fox superhero guru Mark Millar talks Joe Carnahan’s “kung-fu exploitation” Daredevil

Daredevil Joe Carnahan reboot

Daredevil Joe Carnahan reboot
One of the Daredevil comic panels used in Joe Carnahan’s sizzle reel

Announced as creative consultant and ‘the other Joss Whedon’ for the Marvel superhero movies held by 20th Century Fox (Fantastic Four, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, The Wolverine, Deadpool) back in September, Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar narrowly missed out on The Grey director Joe Carnahan’s proposed Daredevil reboot.

“I came in that week,” Millar explained exclusively to SciFiNow. “I was in LA and I know there was talk of it. Joe [Carnahan]’s a very good friend of mine. In fact, Joe was probably the main guy who pushed me to get this job, so I was really looking forward to doing that and now it’s great working on Nemesis, which from a personal point of view is more exciting because it’s another Millarworld movie, but the original idea so great, and unfortunately there was 11 months to get the thing out there before the rights reverted back to Marvel Studios, which is a real shame.

“I’ve no idea what the plan is with Disney Marvel, but with Fox Marvel plan was so cool – I hope they do Daredevil justice because I love the character.”

Expanding on the “genius” of Carnahan’s pitch – the sizzle reel he released for tone showing the Frank Miller ‘Born Again’ comic arc intercut with clips from The Warriors, Taxi Driver and more – Millar continued, “This was going to be a cross between Serpico, Sidney Lumet and Frank Miller.

“The thing that Joe pointed out that was so smart – he spoke to me before he started working on it – he said, ‘I’ve got an idea for Daredevil’, and I said ‘What is it?’ and had an act in mind and he said, ‘We can’t set it in the present day’ and I said ‘How come?’ and he said, ‘Well, Hell’s Kitchen is like a beautiful neighbourhood.’ I’d never actually thought of it that way – that’d true, you know, [former New York mayor] Rudy Guilliani, unfortunately, had cleaned everything up. It’s nice for the people who live there, but it’s not very good cinematically.

“So he said it has to be a period piece,” Millar continued, “and he said the perfect time to set it would be the Seventies then you have all the kung-fu exploitation, you’ve got the race riots, the blackout – all that kind of stuff would be so cool in superhero movie – and the blackout with a guy that’s blind would be incredible.”

Check out Joe Carnahan’s sizzle reel below, and if you’re feeling particularly inspired, pick up Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil: Born Again for £9.59 from Amazon.co.uk.