Marvel Moves Ahead With ‘Doctor Strange’ As Script By Thomas Donnelly & Joshua Oppenheimer Handed In

You may have missed this bit of news during the blitzkrieg of Comic-Con, but Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish finished their long-gestating script for “Ant-Man,” submitted it before they hit San Diego and have even done some preliminary concept work. Now, another long, long awaited comic adaptation is taking its next step to becoming a reality.

As you might recall, last summer writers Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (“Conan The Barbarian,” “Sahara“) were tasked with writing a script for “Doctor Strange” and it seems Marvel has been giving everybody a similar deadline, as Twitch reveals they too have handed in their work, and a shortlist of directors has been drafted (the names of which we presume we’ll hear any moment now).

An adaptation of “Doctor Strange” has been knocking around Hollywood for years and its easy to see why. For those of you out of the comic world loop, the character is a self-centered New York surgeon who can no longer practice after a car accident. He becomes a drifter, finds his way to a healer in the Himalayas, and learns to tap into psychic powers to battle evil wizards and other bad dudes. His mind is his weapon and his powers include energy and astral projection, teleportation, telepathy, creating shields and more. It’s no wonder then that the property, licensed out to various studios over the years, has attracted a number of writers and directors including Bob Gale, Wes Craven, David Goyer, Stephen Norrington and Guillermo del Toro. Oh yeah, remember “The Illusionist” with Edward Norton? He said he modeled his character after Dr. Strange (and too bad he already played Hulk because really, he’s a great fit for the role). But with Marvel back in control, they will undoubtedly stay reverential to the source material.

With all of Marvel’s A-list superheroes having gotten the movie treatment and reassembling for next year’s “The Avengers,” the studio is now embarking into the tentative waters for their B-level characters who are less well known to the general populace. Word has long been these features will be at a smaller budget (which makes sense) and we’d wager Marvel will wisely tie these characters into the movie world they have so carefully been orchestrating and overlapping over the past few years. Expect more news soon as Disney’s D23 geek fest where Marvel is sure to make a strong showing, kicks off on August 19th.