Marvel is getting their horses in a line and one of the first characters to come out of the gate is Doctor Strange. This film will be the entry point for the movie interpretation of the magical side of the movie universe. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said their approach to their Doctor Strange movie “needs to be a Ditko/Kubrick/Miyazaki/The Matrix mind-trip” during a previous interview with Badass Digest. Well now head writer Devin Faraci is following up that scoop with with more detailed info on the upcoming film. On Meet the Movie Press, Faraci explains the new approach to Doctor Strange:
“So, for Dr. Strange they’ve had a script in-house forever. It is a pretty standard origin story for Doctor Strange. It’s got Baron Mordo as the bad guy. That’s all gone. Marvel’s new thing is no more origin stories. So, Dr. Strange movie no longer has an origin. It begins in medias res. It has Dr. Strange already established as the Sorcerer Supreme. It is a totally new script. Jon Spaihts is working totally new, On his own, without any of the previous stuff. Not even touching the previous script.”
The most interesting aspect of this update is that Marvel Studios is banking on the fact that audiences will have grown bored of the origin story in it’s entirety. Doctor Strange will be released in the third phase of Marvel Studios cinematic growth. (Bookmarks of the phases can be easily identified by which Avengers movie is next to come out.) By this time it will have been close to ten years, since they launched arguably their best origin story with Iron Man.
The film beginning in medias res, may be a sign that they are aiming to make a more sophisticated brand of film. Typically this type of film begins with a huge action scene involving the protagonist. The audience is informed of the character’s back story and motivations via flashbacks and flash-forwards. An extraordinary director, such as Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins) or Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), can turn a nonlinear narrative into memorable experiences. It is still to early to tell if Doctor Strange’s director, Scott Derrickson (Deliver Us From Evil, Sinister) and screenwriter Jon Spaights (Prometheus), along with Marvel Studios are taking the right approach. They are all gambling on the audience becoming more sophiscated by that point. Hopefully they aren’t let down and deliver an amazing new adventure in 2016.
(Go to about the 52 minute mark)
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Sources: BadAss Digest, ComicbookMovie