Marvel Studios established a new system of releasing films in 2014. They began releasing two films a year, one an established franchise in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and a new addition to the Marvel cinematic universe, Guardians of the Galaxy. They followed it up this year with Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. In 2016, they have another double dosage beginning with Captain America: Civil War in May and the release of Doctor Strange in November.
Shooting is currently underway with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as Stephen Strange. Horror director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) is at the helm and he has surrounded Cumberbatch with a collection of some of the best living actors on the planet including, Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer), Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Martian), and Mads Mikkelson (Hannibal). With a cast as talented as this, the sky really is the limit for the creative potential of the Doctor Strange movie.
Entertainment Weekly released the first images and concept art for the upcoming film today and they do not disappoint. What is immediately striking is that they don’t shy away from the more mystic and trippy elements of Doctor Strange’s world. They also don’t demean the character in his debut. So let’s get into it.
From the concept art it’s clear that they will be addressing Strange’s origin story. He begins as a hotshot doctor who gets into a car crash which smashes his hands, leaving him unable to perform surgery. This is a defining moment for the character, which begins his transformation from arrogance, to becoming a holder of mystic wisdom.
While it has a new age look, this looks like this is Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. This serves as his base of operations and in the comics has housed the Avengers and the Defenders in the past. The biggest question is how many Easter eggs are actually in this picture? Let us know…
Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige has been on record for years saying that Doctor Strange is his favorite Marvel character and that they would be embracing the surreal and trippy nature of the 1960’s comic. Here is a quote that he gave EW about their approach:
“When this comic appeared in the early ’60s, it really informed, in a way that is pretty amazing, a lot of the psychedelic ’60s as we know it. I don’t know that they were doing anything weird in the bullpen in Marvel, but certainly the stuff they were doing inspired all those people who were doing mind-expansion experiments at the time. So, that’s inherent to the property. And that’s our mission statement for the visual effects on this movie.”
The image below clearly shows that Strange will be taking us into unknown Marvel territory and expanding the cinematic universe in new mind-bending ways. This looks like the ultimate superhero stoner flick.
We get to see a little more of Strange’s magical powers which is a clear allusion to the a similar pose that can be found in the comics. (Refer to the cover picture up top.) Cumberbatch looks as if he has totally bought into the role and hopefully can add unexpected layers of depth to his portrayal of Strange. Cumberbatch also opened up a little to EW about his approach to casting spells:
“I’m still in the infancy of learning all that. It was like, okay, I’ve got to keep throwing these poses, these spells, these rune-casting things, everything he does physically. I’m thinking, there’s going to be a huge amount of speculation and intrigue over the positioning of that finger as opposed to it being there, or there. And I’m still working on that. We haven’t played any of those scenes yet. I felt really self-conscious. But, then, by the end, it was great. It’s like anything, you just have to experiment.”
We can’t wait to find out what the results are later this year…
Doctor Strange opens on November 4th, 2016.
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Source: Slashfilm