It looks like Sony Pictures really is working on a
Spider-Woman movie, and even though the project is probably only in the very early stages of development, we may have some idea who's on the studio's radar to helm the picture and play the lead role of Jessica Drew.
The Illuminerdi has heard that Sony is interested in Primetime Emmy Award winner Michelle MacLaren (
Westworld, Game of Thrones) to direct. You may recall MacLaren was originally set to helm Warner Bros.'
Wonder Woman movie before leaving due to "creative differences," and there's been steady interest from several studios to lock her into a comic book-based project since.
The site also reckons this will be the Jessica Drew incarnation of the character, and Sony feels that Alicia Vikander
(Tomb Raider, Ex Machina) is the "ideal actress" for the part.
Apparently, the plan is for Spider-Woman to serve as another bridge between the likes of
Venom and
Morbius and the greater MCU. Here's a logline:
"The film will center on Jessica Drew, a young woman who decades ago grew deathly ill after months of exposure to the uranium being used in her father’s scientific experiments. He was forced to use an experimental medicine, which was based on the biology of an irradiated spider, to save her. She was sealed away in a genetic accelerator in an attempt to amplify the effects of the serum. Jessica wakes decades later, having not aged much in that time. She also gains a set of powers, along with no memory of who she was in the past."
It's important to note that, even if Sony is interested in Vikander and MacLaren, it's possible no formal offer to either will even be made. Studios often keep a certain "type" of actor or director in mind when starting out on a project only for nothing to come of it. That said, MacLaren and Vikander would certainly be huge gets if they did manage to web them in.
What do you guys make of this report? Let us know in the comments down below.