Neill Marshall Looking For A Gig

Neil Marshall has made some pretty awesome movies. Dog Soldiers, The Descent, and Centurion were all fun genre movies. The Descent 2 and Doomsday had their flaws, more in the latter than the former, but were still stylish, fast paced movies that were sufficiently entertaining.

He had a few things to say about his interest in a future Marvel film. During an interview with Vanity Fair he had this to say:

VF: If you were to ever go for one of those mega-budget movies, would you consider doing that female superhero movie everyone’s clamoring for? You have a great history of writing strong cinematic females.

NM: I think I’d like to do a big movie with a strong female lead, whether or not she would be a superhero. I’m more interested in characters like Scarlett Johansson in Lucy. I’m less interested in people with superpowers because I can’t identify with them. Very rarely do they get killed off, and when they do get killed off, chances are they’re going to be back . . . somehow. Yes, I’d love to do a big splashy movie with a great female lead, but it has to be someone I can believe in.

VF: Since you mention Scarlett Johansson and no superpowers, what about a Black Widow movie?

NM: I would love to do a Black Widow movie. That’s perfect, I would love to do that. That character is really interesting, she doesn’t have any superpowers, she just has extraordinary skills, and the world that she comes from, being this ex-K.G.B. assassin, I find that really fascinating, yeah.

This would be a great match-up. Marshall has shown a talent for writing and directing strong female characters. And his action sequences are a nice mix of gritty and cinematic. In other words, perfect for a Black Widow story. Finally, Johanssen starring in a solo Black Widow feature is a great idea in any case. She has a strong screen presence and Marvel could use a female-centric movie. Bring Yelena Belova, Russian intel's replacement Black Widow, in as the villain (maybe have Katrina Bowden; she was fun to watch in Tucker and Dale and I can imagine her in a skin tight jumpsuit) and have some sweet girl-girl fights.

Um, okay, maybe that was a little too much of my own inner movie theater coming out there.