may be the first major film property to revert to Marvel Studios from a competitor after 20th Century Fox’s reboot of the franchise seems to have imploded following the loss of director David Slade, who has left the film over scheduling conflicts. He was unable to clear time in his schedule before a fall deadline for rights reversion because he is shooting the pilot for Hannibal, writer/producer Bryan Fuller’s new take on Hannibal Lecter.Deadline reports that Fox has a script ready to go, but that if they cannot find another director and get the movie in motion before the fall, the rights could end up reverting to Marvel, giving them the chance to add Daredevil to their burgeoning Marvel Cinematic Universe that so far includes Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the other Avengers. Rumor has it that this weekend an entirely new Marvel film project–the current favorites are Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther and Ant-Man–may be announced.Slade recently made headlines when one of his tweets seemed to suggest that Josh Hartnett–a favorite collaborator of his–might be tapped to star in the action film about Marvel’s blind attorney who spends his nights jumping the rooftops as Daredevil. The next day, the buzz got so loud he had to deny it, and also took the opportunity to admit he was planning on bucking the 3D trend and shooting the film only in 2D.The film has been challenged almost from the start, but as recently as April there was forward momentum on getting it before the cameras when writer David James Kelly was called in to punch up the script. Now it’s simply a matter of whether Fox can find a new filmmaker they’re comfortable with before the fall deadline hits.Other Marvel Comics properties that rest with non-Marvel studios include Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, The Fantastic Four and the X-Men films.
