While promoting his upcoming horror release,
Don't Breathe, Fede Alvarez has revealed that he was in very early talks to direct a Marvel Studios film. While
speaking to ScreenRant, Alvarez cited the fact that many of the film's stylistic choices and tone have already been figured out by the Marvel brain-trust, something he found unappealing.
"No. Look. A lot of those movies are cool and audiences are going and watching them. It’s just as a director it’s harder to have your vision in those, if you go and do a Marvel movie… At some point we were in conversations and… they already figured it out. They’ve figured out the style. They’ve figured out the way they shoot them. They’ve figured out the colors, the humor. What would I do? I enjoy a lot more freedom than that. I don’t know. Eventually I might. And it depends on probably the characters in the stories. But just something about my job as a director that I really enjoy is creating my own thing. It’s trying to do my own style when I shoot it and set the tone myself… Evil Dead was a challenge in that aspect."
Apparently, these discussions followed the release of
Evil Dead (2013), which starred Jane Levy. Given the horror aspect of that film and the fact that he featured a female lead, it's likely Alvarez met with Marvel to discuss helming
Doctor Strange or
Captain Marvel. Scott Derrickson was selected to helm
Strange in 2014, while the search for a
Captain Marvel director continues. Alvarez certainly isn't the first director to speak out against the "
Marvel approach" to crafting their
Cinematic Universe and likely won't be the last. Though it's likely frustrating for directors, the majority of comc book movie fans certainly aren't complaining as Marvel typically knocks it out of the park more often than not.