Big-name directors trying to make faithful adaptations of comic book source material is a fairly new phenomenon in Hollywood, with Joss Whedon and Jon Favreau breaking the Tim Burton/Christopher Nolan mold of making a movie in their own voice and style that just happens to feature Batman. But actors and directors have long considered these films, and either had a problem getting them made or simply never pursued them to the extent that they could have.One such example is apparently Roman Coppola–director, producer and son to The Godfather and Apocalypse Now mastermind Francis Ford Coppola.(And, yes, Roman Coppola hasn’t ever directed anything huge himself–but he DID thrill comics fans this summer by bringing J. Jonah Jameson together with The Avengers in an insurance commercial).”You know, I did [have the desire to make a superhero movie], but I could again,” filmmaker Roman Coppola told Movie Pilot (via CBM). “I was a huge comic book fan comic book fan growing up, within reason. I was a fan of Spider-Man and all that stuff. Actually, I met Stan Lee 15 or 20 years ago when Marvel had the worst reputation for their adaptations. They had made a really terrible Fantastic Four movie and some other things. I met him with my dad and we said, ‘Oh, wow, I wish we could be involved. How great would it be to make a really accurate version of one of these films?’ I had the aspirations to make a Doctor Strange movie, which I worked on quite a bit. I ended up coming out on the other side, since I told someone I was working on a comic book movie and they said, ‘Do you really want to work for a studio to get pushed around for three years and not make something that’s personal?’ To make a movie like that where I could really use my sensibility would be fantastic. That type of work now is a product, and there’s a manner in which it’s made. Now I think it’d be better to spend those three years to do something better.”While Dr. Strange is not exactly a best seller in comic book stores, he’s consistently picked as a favorite character of creators and filmmakers in comics circles, including Stan Lee himself. A feature film version of the character is reportedly in the works right now, although Marvel has yet to officially announce it.Comics fandom runs in the family, of course; Coppola’s cousin, two-time Academy Award nomineee Nicolas Cage, is a well-known comic book fan and almost got the part of Superman in a Tim Burton-directed version of the film before he ended up settling for a pair of Ghost Rider movies. Coppola reportedly also said that Cage would have been the perfect Dr. Strange for his film.Your mileage may vary.
