A comic property that seems to have been in development forever, Marvel‘s “Black Panther” may finally be getting his due on the big screen.
Heat Vision reports that Marvel has put a movie based on the comic character back into development hiring on Mark Bailey — a name we’re been hearing associated to the project for a while — to pen the screenplay. Who? Bailey comes from the documentary world with gigs as a writer or story editor on sober-faced fare like “Pandemic: Facing AIDS” or “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.” Seems like an odd fit right? It does seem that way until you realize he’s been making strides into tentpole filmmaking, most recently adapting Monte Reel‘s non-fiction book “The Last of the Tribe: The Epic Quest to Save a Lone Man in the Amazon,” a project attached to Doug Liman last summer. And considering Marvel and producer Kevin Feige will be looking over his shoulder every step of the way, fans needn’t be too worried that Black Panther will spend two hours building orphanages overseas.
“Black Panther” has had a messy development history, with rights passing from Columbia to Artisan and then back to Marvel in 2005. Wesley Snipes was attached for a very long time to star in the film but considering he’s recently been sentenced to 36 months in jail and that his career is mostly made up of cheapie straight-to-DVD flicks these days, it’s safe to say Marvel is starting from scratch.
No word on when this one will roll, but clearly Marvel is already eyeing their schedule well beyond “The Avengers” and “Iron Man 3” and is hoping to create more opportunities to cross promote their films in their increasingly complex cinema universe.
