Marvel found its directors for its first female-driven superhero movie, Captain Marvel.
After meeting with several prospects, many of them women, the Disney-owned studio reportedly settled on writers-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck to helm the Brie Larson-starring film, which is slated for a March 2019 release.
The duo’s previous projects include quirky indie fare like Mississippi Grind, which follows two gamblers, played by Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), as they play their way through the American South; It’s Kind of a Funny Story, about a clinically depressed teen who checks himself into an adult psychiatric center, and Half Nelson, starring Ryan Gosling as a junior-high school teacher with a substance abuse problem. The film kick-started the La La Land actor’s career and landed him his first Oscar nomination.
Like James Gunn and the Russo brothers before them, Boden and Fleck have never helmed a film that cost more than $100 million before. Recently, the pair directed episodes of TV shows Billions and The Affair.
But, while Boden and Fleck may be untested in the tentpole movie business, they’ve proven themselves in developing deep, bold, and enthralling characters. That will come in handy as Marvel readies to introduce Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, to audiences who aren’t familiar with her comic-book character.
Danvers is a US Air Force pilot who is imbued with superhuman strength, the gift of flight, and other abilities when her genes are accidentally mixed with alien DNA.
Boden’s and Fleck’s ideas for the characters, and TV and film credits, reportedly won over Marvel Studios executives.