Marvel targets Prometheus writer for Doctor Strange

Marvel kicked off the month by naming a director for its upcoming Doctor Strange movie, and now the project may have its screenwriter, too.

Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts is reportedly (via Deadline) in talks with Marvel to pen the script for Doctor Strange, which serves as the big-screen origin story for Marvel’s “Sorcerer Supreme.” Spaihts is currently working on a reboot of The Mummy franchise and a remake of Disney’s dark 1979 sci-fi film The Black Hole, but previously provided the initial script for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and the 2011 alien-invasion film The Darkest Hour.

A few weeks ago, Sinister filmmaker Scott Derrickson announced that he’ll be the director on Doctor Strange — making it pretty clear that Marvel is looking for a film that will fill out the darker side of the studio’s cinematic universe.

Created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange is a former neurosurgeon who becomes the world’s greatest sorcerer and humanity’s greatest defender against mystical threats to our world. The list of actors Marvel is pursuing for the title role is rumored to include Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Jared Leto, but as with previous films, that list is far from official and the lead could be (and historically tends to be) someone outside the initial “short list” attributed to the project.

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