Director David Slade Discusses Abandoned ‘Daredevil’ Movie


Director David Slade revealed that he was once attached to a Daredevil at 20th Century Fox.

The studio was looking to revamp the franchise after writer-director Mark Steven Johnson’s 2003 box office disappointment failed to connect with audiences. However, the director’s ideas would never come to fruition.

David Slade explained to Film School Rejects that he intended to set the story during the 70s. Instead of the iconic red suit, this version of Daredevil would have worn the yellow costume. The plot would have followed the hero’s attempt to take down his arch-enemy Kingpin.

The Twilight: Eclipse and 30 Days of Night director said the story was “really complex and exciting. It was complicated and the most unimaginable Fox way possible. I was really, really excited about it.”

Sadly, David Slade’s version of Daredevil never found its way into theaters. The project eventually ended up in the lap of The Grey director Joe Carnahan. Despite a valiant effort to get off the ground, his project would also hit the proverbial wall.

“I was brought in pretty late in the game, and my take probably didn’t help matters since they had an existing script. But I just thought that if you were going to do it, this was the way to go. This is the way that intrigued me,” Carnahan explained to the Radio Dan Show.

The filmmaker added, “But as I mentioned, the clock ticking and this kind of October drop-dead date, it wasn’t tenable. And having gone down this road in the past when you’re trying to write something and shoot it at the same time is disastrous, and I think you’d need an adequate amount of time to put that script together in the right way.”

Twentieth Century Fox would eventually lose the rights to the Daredevil franchise. The character is now back in the hands of Marvel Studios. It’s currently unclear what the folks at Disney plan to do with the character now that the studio has control of the property.

Are you a fan of David Slade’s work? What do you think about the director’s ideas for the proposed Daredevil reboot?

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