David Hayter's writing credits include
X-Men and it's sequel,
Watchmen, and back in 2004, a solo cinematic adaptation of Marvel's 'Black Widow.' And he recently elaborated with
FemPop on what the solo flick could've been, other than his directional debut. While actress Scarlett Johansson is filling the character's heels in
The Avengers, read below as Hayter essentially rehashes on his film's influences and why the movie didn't work out.
What I tried to do was use the backdrop of the splintered Soviet Empire – a lawless insane asylum with four hundred some odd nuclear missile silos. It was all about loose nukes, and I felt it was very timely and very cool. Unfortunately, as I was coming up on the final draft, a number of female vigilante movies came out. We had Tomb Raider and Kill Bill, which were the ones that worked, but then we had BloodRayne and Ultraviolet and Aeon Flux. Aeon Flux didn’t open well, and three days after it opened, the studio said, “We don’t think it’s time to do this movie.” I accepted their logic in terms of the saturation of the marketplace, but it was pretty painful. I had not only invested a lot of time in that movie, but I had also named my daughter, who was born in that time period Natasha – after the lead character in Black Widow. I named my daughter after a movie that I wasn’t working on anymore.
David Hayter's draft for
The Black Widow flick is still roaming the net, so with a little search, I'm sure you can pick it up. But anyhow, Marvel Studios have expressed recent interest in green-lighting a solo Scarlett Johansson-starrer solo film. However, considering theres also been "talk" for a solo Jeremy Renner-starrer 'Hawkeye' movie, I say throw the two together. I could see the film paying homage to the various comics where the two paired up as a dynamic duo. What do you think?