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Watch: Joe Carnahan's Awesome Discarded 'Daredevil' Pitch Videos

by Alex Billington
August 14, 2012
Source: Twitter

Earlier today we reported that, despite rumors involving potentially trading characters with Marvel, Fox was not interested in moving forward on Joe Carnahan's Daredevil pitch. The news originally came from Joe Carnahan himself this morning, who expressed his dissatisfaction tweeting: "Think my idea for a certain retro, red-suited, Serpico-styled superhero went up in smoke today kids. We shall see. Time is NOT on anyone's side." He later returned to respond and then, tonight, after getting enough followers decided to post the two videos of the Daredevil pitches he put together for the public's entertainment. They're good.

Following Carnahan's tweets this morning, Variety confirmed that the film rights to Daredevil would indeed revert back to Marvel Studios in October. "Fox will have no choice but to allow the rights to Daredevil to go back to Marvel" because time will be up. Carnahan himself also tweeted a response adding: "DD pitch was tremendous and everyone flipped for it. The clock ticked down at Fox, that's why it went tits up." The pressure from fans online eventually pushed him to throw up both videos on YouTube, so here they are. One is a more "NC-17" (extremely violent) version, while the other is just a tamer studio-friendly PG-13 pitch.

The NC-17 pitch. From Joe: "More violent version. More clips from the prior DD movie. More gruesome."

Here's the PG-13 vanilla pitch. From Joe: "The more PG-13 version. More comic panels. Less violent."

"Can youuu diggg it?" These pitches honestly looked damn good, I quite enjoyed the tone and style even though a lot of the action was pulled from the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie. It has a really rough, gritty, violent feel to it, which this kind of character needs, yet also has the style that makes it cinematic. I would pay good money to see this Daredevil this weekend. Why did they pass up the chance to make this? Maybe Carnahan's decision to post this and the tons of online buzz it's going to get will only help. He did say "I will post the piece we did since it should be seen be all now... then you guys decide." I know I'd like to see it.

Who knows, if these videos fly around the web and continue to get some excellent buzz, maybe Marvel or Fox will try and work it all out. It might be worth it if it turns out as good as this looks, but it's up to you guys, and what your response is to this sizzle reel footage. Is Carnahan the right man for Daredevil?

Filed under Comics, Cool Stuff, Feat, To Watch

From around the web:

Jericho

actually this made the movie look promising...
http://www.thepixelpuse.com/ Aj Meadows

The NC-17 or even R rated version needs to happen. That looked fantastic. Like, holy shit. Love the 70's period-piece idea. Great stuff. Funky stuff. That Joe Carnahan is certainly NOT a jive turkey.
Yug

So basically he wants to make Frank Miller's Daredevil, I'm up for that.
DAVIDPD

Figures...
ocp

I can dig it
http://mithunonthe.net/ Mithun Divakaran

Let's be realistic. You seriously think this version of a comic book hero would have made in excess of $100 million at the box office today?
George Caltsoudas

Two mistakes that I'm sure turned off studio execs: 1) He showed footage from the failed Daredevil film. ONE shot of DD himself is fine, but anything more than that is wrong - it scares a client off if you're not making something look different enough from the competeition and/or prior box office failures. 2) He used 70's music (Superbad) that is too kitsch, funky, and which was recently used in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows - THAT in linkage with the hook that it's 1973 (DS movie was all about 1972) is another thing that can turn off/scare off execs/producers. NEVER include anything that directly reminds anyone of a film that's recently bombed. He could have easily changed his pitch to have only the more contemporary music (or music that has a SENSE of vintage funk without being actual vintage) and set it in present day New York but with the grit, style, and swagger, and colour palette of the 70's.
- http://twitter.com/equustel Ali Miller
  
  Except that Fox reportedly loved his pitch. The problem wasn't his approach; the problem was time. Fox sat around too long and now they've lost their chance.
  - TheRagingCajun
    
    LOL! Take that. Everyone's a deconstructive shrink in here......
- Cody W
  
  I dont think anyone cares about your points(though valid) because there about how its gonna make the most money, not how its going to be a good/bad film
dom

Movie clips cut together - this could have been for anything. meh, I wasn't impressed, but then I'm no fan of this character.
http://twitter.com/equustel Ali Miller

Props for using so many "Born Again" panels, but as cool as this idea is, I'm still not convinced it's what DD really needs. I mean, I love Frank Miller's Daredevil as much as anyone - he really did revolutionize the character - but I can't help feeling like Carnahan is prizing style over substance in this case. While the idea of grafting DD into a 70s gangster film is FUN, it's not going to get the character very far. It's not going to establish his world as it really exists. And furthermore, it isn't representative of who DD is today. I'm glad he's going back to Marvel.
germss

I hope Marvel doesn't give up on Daredevil. Anything that doesn't fit with their current cinematic universe doesn't get a movie, which is a shame. Something tells me we won't be seeing Daredevil or The Punisher anytime soon. Even though this footage was a little scatterbrain, it looks like it could be an interesting take on the character.
big

Awesome! Feels like michael cimino directed. Hope they tak a chance with this!
Sean

That was awesome! I would pay to see this movie.
Ashley Sargiotto

I am all for this, they looks amazing (I prefer the first one) very violent, good theme and using the comic images is a win for me!
David Banner

Whoa, how did I miss this? I'd say this looks spot on of the Born Again collection. And it would have been great to see, but would the move at least break even at the box office? I doubt it. But, as a TV-series(seems it's always the answer), even if only 1 season of 10 episodes(on cable); HELLYESSS!
http://twitter.com/PolarBear26J Joshua Abbott

Looks like amazing potential for a film - I could go with the PG-13 version after seeing what Avengers could do - but would be nice to see a solid R or NC-17 film done right.