Scott Derrickson Spent An Obscene Amount Of His Own Money To Secure ‘Doctor Strange’ Director Position

The continued success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe means that there are quite a few directors out there that are queueing up to get a chance to direct one of their films.

Scott Derrickson was lucky enough to get the chance to direct Doctor Strange, which is due out at the start of next month, but it came at a rather large personal cost for the filmmaker. Derrickson has confessed that he spent a huge amount on creating a visual presentation in order to land the gig, which he then used in his discussions with Kevin Feige and Marvel.

Scott Derrickson made this admission to Be Entertainment, revealing, “I spent an extreme amount of money in creating my visual presentation to get this job.”

This then provoked Tilda Swinton, who was directed by Derrickson on Doctor Strange and was being jointly interviewed alongside the filmmaker, to ask, “Did you make a levitation cloak?” as well as, “Did you go in costume?”

Derrickson responded by teasing, “Oh, I did much more than that. I spent an obnoxious amount of my own money.” Unfortunately for us nosy individuals, Derrickson refused to reveal the exact amount that he ended up spending in this process, but he did go into further details about what he spent the money on.

“I pre-wrote a 12-page scene in the movie and illustrated it completely and created my own concept art,” Derrickson revealed. And that was just for starters. Because the director then added, “I went in and did a 90-minute presentation that cost me a LOT of money.”

However, the 50-year-old admitted that there was a happy ending to this story, and that he got to make all of his money back, and, I’m guessing, more, as Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios decided that he was the perfect man to oversee Doctor Strange. Derrickson confessed that before he signed on to the blockbuster, though, Marvel had to buy his plans off him, which meant that all his efforts and splurging was worth it.

“The great thing was that when I got the job they had to buy it all off me,” Derrickson continued. “Because one of the set pieces in the middle of the movie was one of the scenes that I wrote and they had to own everything, because a lot of it ended up being in the movie we made.”

“So I got a lot of that money back. But I was committed, I was going to out-spend every competing director,” Derrickson insisted, before he noted, “I just knew that to get the job I had to show that I wanted it more than anyone.”

Scott Derrickson Went To Great Lengths To Work For Marvel https://t.co/ta14Ks4P4o pic.twitter.com/d2UVxV9NP6

— Heroic Hollywood (@heroichollywood) October 21, 2016

Doctor Strange is due out at the start of next month, but early reviews for the latest edition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe have started to emerge. The general consensus seems to be that the action sequences for the blockbuster are spell-binding, while the visual effects, Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino’s score, and Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance have all been lauded, too. However, some of the humor for Doctor Strange has been criticised as being rather forced, and its origin story also feels too formulaic and repetitive.

Doctor Strange, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton, is the second installment to Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, coming hot off the heels of Captain America: Civil War. It will be followed by Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, and another Avengers sequel.

All of which will be squeezed out before May, 2019, and you can expect many, many more to come afterwards, too.

[Featured Image by Marvel Studios and Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]