While promoting his new film Interstellar: The Dr Mann Story, I mean The Martian, Matt Damon told NY Daily News that he would be interested in doing a superhero movie, if it was a Christopher Nolan helmed Daredevil film. Damon expanded saying that he was offered the role along with friend and Good Will Hunting co-writer, Ben Affleck (who landed the role in the now infamous film), but turned it down due to not knowing director Mark Steven Johnson’s work.
Here’s what Damon had to say:
“For us it was always Daredevil.” He then spoke of his and Ben’s childhood riding the character, “That’s the comic we read when we were kids, but when that one came along I chickened out, because I couldn’t tell. I hadn’t seen the director (Mark Steven Johnson’s) work and I didn’t know. So I just said, ‘No.’ Ben was like, ‘I gotta do it.'”
Many will say Damon made the smart move as his career prospered, while for the next few years Affleck struggled. In regards to Christopher Nolan’s involvement, Damon clearly developed a good relationship with his Interstellar: The Dr. Mann Story director, and will need to use that to his advantage if he wishes to collaborate with him in bringing his childhood hero to the big screen.
While there is no doubt that the three-way combination of Nolan, Damon, and Daredevil would result in one of the best superhero films, there are three big factors that mean this will never happen. First, Nolan has already directed a trilogy of dark street level superhero films. I can’t see Nolan returning to the superhero genre again unless it’s for something radically different from what he’s done before. Second, Marvel already has a Daredevil, and it’s one of the best things ever in the genre, even rivaling, and in some people’s mind surpassing, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Third, Nolan is still tied to DC. Many don’t seem to realize this, but Nolan is still serving as an executive producer and adviser to DC films. It’s a behind the scene role, but an important one. I can’t see DC parent company, Warner Bros, allowing one of their biggest box office drawing director’s work for the enemy. Likewise, I can’t see Nolan biting the hand that feeds him.
If you’re a Damon fan, you might be interested to find out that he did drop hints that he would like to transition to directing like Affleck, and that maybe directing a super hero film could be something he’d like to do. “Just putting that out there,” he joked. Maybe Damon will get to leave his stamp on the superhero genre as a writer/director. Maybe one day. As Affleck takes the role of Batman, Damon would be a perfect choice for Hal Jordan. Hal and Bruce are mates right?
Source: The New York Daily News
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