In what is certainly going to be the opening salvo in flurry of activity over the next few weeks, Variety announced that Marvel Studios has hired husband and wife writer/director team of Ryan Flack and Anna Boden to helm its upcoming Captain Marvel film.
Fleck and Boden broke on the national scene in 2006 with Half Nelson, which the pair co-wrote and Fleck directed. The film starred Ryan Gosling as a drug-addicted inner city teacher who develops a special friendship with one of his students. The role earned Gosling an Oscar nomination and helped jump start Gosling’s career as a serious actor.
Boden joined Fleck as director for the rest of their collaborations, which include character driven films such as Sugar and It’s Kind of a Funny Story. Their latest film was the gambling-themed Mississippi Grind starring Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds.
Marvel was looking for a female director to take on the project, and other names in consideration were Niki Caro (Whale Rider), Lesli Linka Glatter (Now and Then), Lorene Scafaria (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World), Lucia Aniello (Rough Night), Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey), Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) and Jennifer Yuh (Kung Fu Panda 2).
Boden and Fleck have co-written every film they directed, so one assumes they will be providing their own take Meg LeFauve and Nicole Perlman’s script, although Variety states that Marvel was waiting for the script to get into good shape before signing a director.
Captain Marvel is set to arrive in theaters on March 8, 2019.
