Marvel
Just when you’re worried about women superheroes not being handled appropriately by women filmmakers, given Michelle MacLaren’s departure from Wonder Woman, here’s some positive news. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Studios are building their Captain Marvel movie from the bottom up with a perfect union of women creatives.
Nicole Perlman, who penned the original script for Guardians of the Galaxy, and Meg LeFauve, one of the writers behind the upcoming Pixar feature Inside Out, are collaborating on the screenplay for the comic book adaptation centered on Carol Danvers, an Earth woman who gets super powers from the Kree – an alien race we saw represented in the Guardians villains Ronan and Korath.
Interestingly enough, Marvel was apparently interested in Perlman years ago for something with a female character at the center. It might have even been Captain Marvel. She was offered various lesser-known Marvel projects during a special Marvel writer’s program in 2009, and she chose Guardians.
“I can’t tell you what the other titles were that they were offering up on the table, but I can tell you that one of them was a little bit more appropriate for me, just based on gender,” she told Time last summer. “I think they were a little taken aback when I chose Guardians, because there were ones that would make a lot more sense if you were a romantic-comedy writer or something like that.”
Perlman also did some script doctor work on the first Thor and has written a treatment for a possible Black Widow solo movie. She’s also good friends with comic book writer G. Willow Wilson, who currently works on the Captain Marvel-related title “Ms. Marvel,” about a Muslim teen who takes up the title moniker from Danvers. Perlman is now writing a comic book for Marvel, too, focused on Zoe Saldana’s Guardians character, Gamora.
Reportedly, Marvel sought out women writers for Captain Marvel, and MCU franchise runner Kevin Feige liked the separate pitches by Perlman and LeFauve, who also produced The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. So, the studio joined the two talents together for a real-life Marvel Team-Up. Presumably, once the result is handed in, Feige will also hire a woman director for the movie. Maybe he’ll try for MacLaren. Also presumably, given Feige’s comments about why the character was cut from Avengers: Age of Ultron, it will be an origin story.
Captain Marvel is set to hit theaters on July 6, 2018.
