Joe Carnahan’s take on ‘DAREDEVIL’ MOVIE as 1970’s-style thriller may be nixed.

I wasn’t really impressed with Joe Carnahan until I saw The Grey, and then I was all like. Holy tits. This can has some chops. Fox must have been thinking the same thing, because they recruited him to the sinking ship that is the Daredevil franchise. The swine only have October 10 to get the film rolling, or the franchise defaults back to Marvel. Can’t you just hear the groaning of Marvel executives, as they rub aloe vera on their chaffed nipples. Nips that have been chaffed as they cheese-grater them in erotic bliss during contemplating of regaining the franchise. It is getting closer!, they proclaim, as Fox wavers on even Carnahan’s take.

/Film:

So what’s happening with Daredevil over at Fox? The studio has planned to reboot the character, and for some time had David Slade attached to direct the film. The script is based on Frank Miller and David Mazzuccheli’s Born Again storyline, which sees Matt Murdock’s friend/employee Karen Page addicted to heroin and selling Murdock’s secret identity — he’s really the vigilante Daredevil — to score drugs. The info lands in the Kingpin’s hands, and he uses it in a very nearly successful attempt to destroy Murdock.

We’ve known that the script was a serious, ’70s style thriller rather than a colorful lark with a blind guy in a red costume. When Slade fell away from the project recently, we heard that Joe Carnahan was in talks with Fox to take over. Carnahan has done a couple of colorful larks (The A-Team, Smokin’ Aces) but he’s also done a couple more serious thrillers (Narc, The Grey) and the idea of him bringing that sensibility toDaredevil was the most interesting angle we’d heard for the reboot yet.

Now, however, the director suggests it very well might not happen.

On Twitter last night [1, 2], Carnahan said,

Think my idea for a certain retro, red-suited, Serpico-styled superhero went up in smoke today kids. We shall see. Time is NOT on anyone’s side.

By time, he means that Fox has to get a film rolling by October 10 or the character rights revert back to Marvel. As we’ve said in the past, that “Serpico-styled” thriller really isn’t the sort of movie Fox seems to want to make right now. I’d be more surprised if the studio wanted to move forward with that sort of film than if it does not.

Thoughts? Impressions? Chaffed nipples?