This just goes to show you, the only way anything Marvel-related gets confirmed is if Marvel confirms it themselves. Back in May, The Wrap reported exclusively – and the trade papers followed suit – that Ava DuVernay was being actively courted by Marvel to direct their superhero movie, Black Panther, starring Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. It seemed rather perfect, considering Ava received such a high-profile snubbing by the Academy for her brilliant film Selma. It seemed like, “Well, at least her next project will be considerably high-profile, high-prestige and she’ll have a lot of Marvel money to work with.” Alas, it was not to be. Ava told Essence that she’s not doing Black Panther.
The first Black female superhero movie director moment is going to have to be put on hold, folks. It turns out those rumors of Ava DuVernay directing Marvel’s Black Panther movie were not totally factual—she considered it, but passed. The Selma director tells ESSENCE she did meet with execs about bringing the story of Marvel’s first superhero of color to life, but they had different ideas of how to move forward.
“I guess I’ll declare my independence from this rumor on 4th of July weekend and Essence weekend!” DuVernay said on her way to accept a McDonald’s 365 Award during the ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans.
“I’m not signing on to direct Black Panther,” she added. “I think I’ll just say we had different ideas about what the story would be. Marvel has a certain way of doing things and I think they’re fantastic and a lot of people love what they do. I loved that they reached out to me.”
The Black Panther movie is currently in the works, with Chadwick Boseman (Get on Up) slated to play the role of T’Challa, the ruler of the fictional nation of Wakanda and the first Black superhero to appear in a mainstream comic book franchise in the 60s.
“I loved meeting Chadwick and writers and all the Marvel execs,” said DuVernay. “In the end, it comes down to story and perspective. And we just didn’t see eye to eye. Better for me to realize that now than cite creative differences later.”
“I love the character of Black Panther, the nation of Wakanda and all that that could be visually. I wish them well and will be first in line to see it.”
On one side, yes, it is better that Ava walked away from Marvel now, when they were in the preliminary discussions as opposed to, like, a week before principle photography began. My guess is that the creative differences were significant – Marvel doesn’t give their directors artistic, creative or story control at all and I’m guessing the thought of being a cog in the Marvel machine didn’t suit Ava at all.
Still, I’m sort of worried about Ava. During the Oscar season, there was definitely a whisper campaign about how she was a “difficult” director, which I just took to mean as “she’s a black woman in a field dominated by white men and some people have a problem with that.” But I’m still worried that those whispers took root somewhere and are having longer-term consequences for her career. She recently shot a pilot of CBS called Justice, which was about race, politics, and how black lives matter. CBS did not pick it up. So… yeah, I’m worried. She needs to get some work.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Lots of directors are difficult, but it’s messed up it could negatively affect (effect?) her career. I’m sad she won’t get the Marvel exposure, but good for her for walking away from something she didn’t believe in.
Let’s not forget Ava was a publicist up until 4 years ago. IMO, she should be much better at crafting her image than she appears to be.
I looked at IMDB and she has another movie starting with Oprah. Not sure if that is a good thing.
The difficult rumors were because she spent more time filming Selma than the producers or executives wanted because she was committed to making sure it was done right. However Marvel knew all of that before they asked her to direct their film so they had no problems with the rumors.
Let’s not forget that she is the second woman to meet with Marvel and for their ideas of how to film their comic book movie conflicts. Same thing happened for THOR 2, Patty Jenkins, the female director Natalie Portman lobbied for met with Marvel and things didn’t work out due to different visions of how to approach filming. I don’t think this is due to a problem with Ava.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/thor-2-natalie-portman-marvel-patty-jenkins-272978
Yeah, dificult to the point of abusive directors abound. But we all k ow men are “geniuses” where women are “shrill b!tches”.
There’s difficult for the financiers and producers to work with, and then there are directors that are mean to the acting staff. The former is much less likely to get work than the latter.
Seriously, it burns me that people handwave away the abusive, insane BS from David O. Russell, James Cameron, et. al. — but Ava DuVernay is the one who gets called difficult.
OKAY, Hollywood. I have no doubt that she probably is, most directors are, but c’mon.
What stuck with me about her oscar campaign was her admission that she knew no academy directors or directors in her own guild.
Considering this business is all about networking, that admission made me pause.
It could be a complete fluke or she’s too busy to network or they are snubbing her for various reasons, but it still made me pause.
That is interesting. The Hollywood machine is very much about who you know, and even with a hit on your hands, you still need connections to forge a career with longevity.
Especially the directors guild.
She may not have been nominated for an Oscar, but Selma was still on the awards circuit and she should have been networking her butt off. I feel like she’s misfired when it comes to her image, because now she’s better known for the ‘snub’. She needs to get her next project lined up stat.
I quite agree. And get out there and network….
And get away from Oprah. No good has ever come from an Oprah endorsement.
I’ve seen Selma a few times now, and I’ve got to say, the direction is mediocre, as is the film itself. The story is obviously very affecting and the acting ranges from great to spectacular, but it’s not a particularly well made film. I think there was a lot of opportunity there for her to make something really amazing, but it ended up very paint by numbers. That there was an Oscar campaign at all is down to David Oyeylowo’s brilliant performance.
I haven’t seen her first film but I have seen Middle of Nowhere, which again had fantastic performances and a compelling story, but the direction is just ok. I haven’t seen anything from her yet that suggests she’s a great director, or even an interesting director. The hype seems a bit misplaced at this point.
The “paint by numbers” feeling comes from having Oprah’s fingerprints all over it. With the exception of Oprah, Ava had an amazing cast and an amazing story to work with. She should have been allowed the freedom to make a great movie with that but she wasn’t. I sat through it wishing an actual actress had been allowed to play the part of Annie Lee Cooper. By the way, Oprah, keep in mind for the next film that a middle-aged woman who gets knocked to the street and hit repeatedly in the face is not going to show up the next day without some major bruises.
I share your thoughts. The direction in Selma is mediocre as is the movie itself – the kind of safe, formulaic prestige biopic that gets routinely trotted out during Oscar season. I love Oyelowo’s performance but the rest of the movie leaves me cold, and the excessive use of slo-mo comes across as emotionally manipulative and jarring.
It was the same for the Imitation Game. I liked the movie but it’s commercial fare intended for a wide audience, that’s possibly the point for Selma. People are less likely to see Selma than the Imitation Game so I could understand the need to make it a paint by the numbers type story (It STILL didn’t come without controversy and people getting angry about how white people were portrayed). But whatever if David O Russell can be applauded for his crap work, I will gladly applaud Ava and will gladly see what else she has to offer. I honestly think she should have taken this job because it’s a job that can lead her to do stuff she finds interesting.
I actually found The Imitation Game worse than Selma. The very kind of blatant Oscar bait that makes my skin crawl.
And yes, David O Russell is another overrated director.
Considering more and more we find out that directors seem to have hated working for Marvel (Alan Taylor publicly called it “wrenching”, Joss Whedon seems very happy to get out) she probably figured it wasn’t worth stressing over.
Marvel is a meat grinder.
I feel like she doesn’t get that she needs to be making all the friends she can right now. Nobody is above networking in this business
I said this was just a rumor when Lainey reported it.The website that confirmed it was not affliated with Marvel.
Glad to hear it. I didn’t think it was going to work out well if she directed it.
Well, that story didn’t last long.
I suppose it’s good they considered her, but hopefully she moves on to a good project elsewhere.
Damn it, I knew this was too good to be true! Freakin’ Marvel