After last month brought the exciting word that Olivia Wilde had signed on to co-write and direct a secret Marvel project for Sony Pictures, the 36-year-old filmmaker has now hinted that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige may have a hand in the film.
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In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Wilde kept her lips sealed as to which character the film would be focusing on, with sources reporting it to be a Spider-Woman standalone film she is co-writing with her Booksmart collaborator Katie Silberman and Wilde even taking to Twitter after the initial announcement with a spider emoji, but did joke she was dancing around the subject out of fear of a certain creative head.
“All I can say is that this is by far the most exciting thing that’s happened to me because not only do I get to tell a story that…. listen to me, trying to avoid Kevin Feige’s pellet gun,” Wilde said. “We are seeing this incredible influx of female directors and storytellers getting to take hold of this genre, this super hero space, and infuse it with their own perspective. Not only do I get to tell the story as a director but I get to develop the story and that was what made it so incredible for me. I get to do it with thee aforementioned Katie Silverman, who, she and I love to do all sorts of things together but our love started with Booksmart. To know that we went from telling a story about female friendship in high school to this other stratosphere now is just super exciting.“
The project has reportedly been high on Sony’s priority list and the studio has been in talks with Wilde to direct it for a while, though she nearly passed as her upcoming lineup of projects has filled up quickly over the past year, but the prospect of launching her own female superhero swung her to close the deal.
It also marks the second female-centric Marvel film currently in development at Sony Pictures, with the studio landing S.J. Clarkson (Game of Thrones) to direct and develop a film that is rumored to be a Madame Webb project earlier this year, while also still developing a series adaptation of Black Cat and Silver Sable with Gina Prince-Blythewood after initially cancelling the film in the works.
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Wilde also becomes the latest female talent to get her hands on a major comic book project, with last month bringing word that Candyman‘s Nia DaCosta would helm Captain Marvel 2 for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The two follow in the footsteps of recent female filmmakers behind blockbuster properties in the genre including Wonder Woman‘s Patty Jenkins, Birds of Prey‘s Cathy Yan and The Eternals‘ Chloe Zhao.
The new project will be produced by Amy Pascal, who is currently working with Wilde and Silberman on a buddy Christmas comedy at Universal, and executive produced by Rachel O’Connor. Wilde is currently gearing up to begin shooting the psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling at New Line, which has landed Florence Pugh (Midsommar), Chris Pine (Wonder Woman 1984), Harry Styles (Dunkirk) and Dakota Johnson (The High Note) to star.
(Photo Credit: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
