Warner Bros. and DC are committed to hiring a Black director for the long-awaited Black Superman movie. Just how committed? JJ Abrams, who has made a name for himself by directing multiple, high-budget and highly profitable blockbusters is set to executive produce the movie, but is adamant about not directing.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a DC insider stated that having Abrams direct the movie would be “tone-deaf,” especially amid the ongoing conversation about diversity and inclusion in Hollywood and across the country. In other words, it wouldn’t be a good look for a white director to lead this project.
And aparently, Warner Bros. and DC feel the same way about the person writing the script.
It was previously announced that author Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing the screenplay for the upcoming film. Per THR, Coates is “crafting a Kal-El in the vein of the original Superman comics and will have the protagonist hail from Krypton and come to Earth. While the story is currently being crafted and many details could change, one option under consideration is for the film to be a 20th century period piece,” the outlet writes.
Coates is expected to deliver his Superman script in mid-December. DC fans believe the film will center on Calvin Ellis, who debuted in 2008’s Final Crisis #7. Ellis grows up poor in the inner-city and eventually becomes President of the United States.
Michael B. Jordan’s name has consistently come up whenever there is discussion by the general public about a lead actor to play the role. Such talk has gone on since the project was first anounced. However, even though fans have identified Jordan as the perfect choice to bring the larger-than-life character to the big screen, Jordan, who played the iconic Killmonger in the move / cultural moment The Black Panther, has been adamant that he isn’t interested in the role.
“I’m flattered that people have me in that conversation,” Jordan told The Hollywood Reporter in April while promoting his Amazon Prime film Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse. “It’s definitely a compliment, but I’m just watching on this one.”
Abram’s Black Superman film will serve as a departure from the DC universe that has Henry Cavill playing Superman in movies for over a decade.
On the director front, potential candidates being considered to direct the film, per THR, include Barry Jenkins, Ryan Coogler, Steven Caple Jr., J.D. Dillard, Regina King and Shaka King.
In other Black director news Marvel Studios is currently searching for a Black director to bring the reboot of Blade to life. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “some potential directors have met with both studios for both films, even as one agent said the process was ‘phenomenally early.’”
Mahershala Ali has been tapped to play Blade in the much-anticipated reboot of the supernatural movie franchise that originally starred Wesley Snipes in the lead role and paved the way for the success of today’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
-theGrio