In the wake of the critical acclaim for "Selma," Ava DuVernay quickly lined up a couple of intriguing projects: a TV series called "Queen Sugar" that will star Oprah Winfrey and shoot this fall; and a Hurricane Katrina set murder mystery that will be led by David Oyelowo. And now, DuVernay is being courted by the big time.
READ MORE: Interview: Ava DuVernay & David Oyelowo Talk "Perfect Storm" Of Making ‘Selma’ And More
The Wrap reports that Marvel wants the filmmaker to helm one of its "diverse superhero movies," meaning either "Black Panther" or "Captain Marvel." The studio is eager to hire an African-American filmmaker for the former, and a woman for the latter, and DuVernay obviously checks both of those boxes. And while this is good news for adding diversity to the ranks of the Marvel Cinematic Directors Universe, I’m not particularly certain I want a filmmaker as talented as DuVernay making a big blockbuster in which her voice will have to be somewhat compromised to meet the needs of a four-quadrant movie. The flipside, of course, is that DuVernay’s voice, even within the template-driven moviemaking at Marvel, could still be an interesting one for that world.
We’ll see where this goes. And before those of you comment that DuVernay has no experience helming big budget action movies, neither did the Russo Brothers when they were hired for "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." But they took the opportunity and ran with it, assisted by Marvel’s very experienced VFX teams, so there’s no doubt DuVernay could do the same.
