Despite chatter that 20th Century Fox has canceled their slate of X-Men projects that were in various stages of development, prior to the Disney-Fox merger. It looks like the studio hasn’t contacted screenwriter and comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis (Jessica Jones), who revealed on his Twitter account yesterday that he is still actively writing the script for his Kitty Pryde movie that is being produced by Deadpool/Terminator director Tim Miller.
“Yeah, I’m working on it right now. It’s vvvvvvvery surreal and delightful to be so deep inside the X mansion and the fortress of solitude at the same time”
https://twitter.com/BRIANMBENDIS/status/1092246113212456960
In early 2018, Collider first revealed the news that Tim Miller was developing the Kitty Pryde project and it was then supported by the trades, with Deadline revealing that Bendis would be penning the script for the film codenamed 143.
I know people are making assumptions that Kevin Feige will just kill everything in development, but stuff like Bendis’ Kitty Pryde could make the jump as it’ll likely be its own thing that could be retrofitted for the MCU. Marvel folks have suggested they are keen on developing many more female-led projects and Kitty Pryde could be a worthy solo X-Men project to pursue if the script is worth their time.
Bendis created Marvel characters such as Jessica Jones, Spider-Verse’s Miles Morales, and Riri Williams aka Ironheart, the former is rumored to have her own solo film in early development stages Marvel Studios. I don’t think the studio would be so quick to dismiss his screenwriting work.
Noah Hawley (Legion, Lucy In The Sky, Fargo) recently got a nice nod from the Russo Brothers that suggested they’d like to see his version of Doctor Doom in the MCU. Hawley had been developing a solo Doom movie at Fox that he would write and possibly direct.
The only real concrete buzz surrounding the Fox characters is Vice’s Adam McKay and Marvel starting very early meetings about the future of a Silver Surfer movie.
We’d love to see Oscar-nominee and former Jean Grey candidate Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee, True Grit, Edge of Seventeen) considered for the role of Kitty aka Shadowcat since she is already part of the Marvel family voicing Spider-Gwen in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
Currently, a recent SEC filing by Disney is that they expect that the merger will close by June.
SOURCE: BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
