Ava DuVernay Not Directing Marvel’s Black PantherPosted by Wilson Morales
July 3, 2015
Source: Essence
Earlier today while at EssenceFest in New Orleans, Ava DuVernay spoke with Essence.com and stated that she has passed on directing Marvel’s Black Panther film, which is slated to hit theaters July 6, 2018.
“I’m not signing on to direct Black Panther,” she added. “I think I’ll just say we had different ideas about what the story would be. Marvel has a certain way of doing things and I think they’re fantastic and a lot of people love what they do. I loved that they reached out to me.”
Earlier reports on the web had stated that she had already secured the job, but Marvel head Kevin Fiege had told The Hollywood Reporter that they while she had been seen, they also looked at others.
“We’ve met with her for sure,” Feige confirms. “We’ve met with a number of people for a number of movies. She has been one of them… We need to find the best director for any given movie, and that’s really where we always start. If diversity is part of that, it’s great. It’s important. You will start to see things across the industry as a whole change as more filmmakers come up through the ranks and become part of making movies like this.”
DuVernay also told Essence, “I loved meeting Chadwick and writers and all the Marvel execs,” said DuVernay. “In the end, it comes down to story and perspective. And we just didn’t see eye to eye. Better for me to realize that now than cite creative differences later.”
Since directing last year’s Oscar nominated film, ‘Selma,’ DuVernay recently shot the pilot episode for the CBS drama series For Justice, starring Anika Noni Rose. Unfortunately, the series wasn’t picked up by the network.
In the meantime, Black Panther is currently being written by Mark Bailey. There’s plenty of time before a director will be named.
