Friday, November 7, 2014

Top 10 Black Directors for Marvel's BLACK PANTHER Film



Last week Marvel released their slate of films coming out until 2019 including Avengers: Infinity War. Two films that fans were waiting to see were The Black Panther and Captain Marvel.  I'm glad they chose Chadwick Bosemam to play the ruler of Wakanda.  Of course we talked about the news on our podcast in depth.  One of our callers and friend of the show - @Bison4Life asked if Marvel should also pick a black director? We all agreed that it would be cool, but as long as they picked a great director, black or otherwise, we would be happy. Well Marvel, if you so decide on a talented director, that happens to be black, here are my top ten choices (in no particular order). Incidentally, I heard a rumor they were thinking of Reginald Hudlin, who wrote a Black Panther comic story and is an accomplished director.  Mmmmaybe he would be a good choice, but read my list and see what you think.


1. THE HUGHES BROTHERS - Okay, that's two.  But they come in a pair like an awesome pair of pants.  Well, they used to come in a pair. The directors of Book of Eli and From Hell have said they retired and went their separate ways. Do you think the Black Panther film would bring them back together?  Even if one of them decided to take on the project, I think either of them would be a good choice.

2. ANTOINE FUQUA - He knows his action with films like The Equalizer remake, Training Day and Olympus Has Fallen.  He's a serious director, but would he be interested joining the Marvel team?

3. TIM STORY - Say what you want, but this brother is the only director that I know of that directed not one, but TWO major superhero films.  Sure we didn't like the cast, the story plot, the writing and the characters of the Fantastic Four films. But was the directing bad?  If this man had a good story, script and a great cast to work with, what would happen?

4. SYLVAIN WHITE - Another brother that directed a film based on a graphic novel.  Did you like The Losers? 

5. MALCOLM D. LEE - He knows how to work an ensemble cast.  And he knows how to bring a range of emotion to a film as seen in his recent work Best Man Holiday.  Lee's style might not be too unique, but nuance may be the key for directing a Panther film.

6. KASI LEMMONS - Another director that would bring emotion and depth to the Wakandan Kingdom.  Talk To Me is one of my favorite Don Cheadle film. And since he's already War Machine, maybe we can have a head to head with Kasi directing the epic confrontation.

7. F. GARY GRAY - Action, Drama and Thrillers are under this man's resume. Gray has directed some classic films and his Panther film would probably be packed with a lot of awesomeness.

8. JOHN SINGLETON - This man knows how to bring the 'Cocky' out of a character and T'Challa isn't anything if he isn't cocky.  But from that Singleton also tells the story of the heroes journey in his films and the lessons learned from assuming too much too soon, which is a staple for some of Marvel's heroes.

9. PETER RAMSEY - Director of the feature animation Rise of the Guardians, Ramsey would be a great fit to bring the fantasy of the Panther universe to life.  Working as an artist, he would probably be familiar with the Black Panther comics and the essence of the material the film would be based on.

10. STEVE McQUEEN - He would bring an introspective character portrayal to the Black Panther.  I think McQueen's Marvel film would be atmospheric and draw you wholeheartedly into the story.  I could see scenes of T'Challa pondering the desperation of some parts of Africa while his kingdom flourishes.


So what do you think?  Are there better choices I missed, like maybe Denzel Washington? Yeah, he's a pretty good director too. Feel free to add to the list so Marvel can't say we didn't try to help them out.

5 comments:

  1. Steve McQueen would be the best in my opinion, but wouldn't Spike Lee just bust it out of the park?!

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  2. Ernest R. Dickerson. Directed Tales of the Crypt: Demon Knight and Bulletproof, both underrated fun flicks. But he has also directed episodes of The Wire, Treme, Burn Notice, and The Walking Dead among others. Those are some badass TV shows. He was also director of phtography for Spike Lee on Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing. I think he'll be able to handle Marvel Studio's trademark combo of humor, action thrills, and drama.

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  3. Wait what? You insane website owners put Steve McQueen as tenth?. Compared to Tim 'Doesn't get nor understands the FF' Story, whom you lot on here ranked way higher than McQueen to do Black Panther. Quantity and the numbers of films made doesn't mean squat if they aren't good movies to look at you crazy insane web owners.

    Steve McQueen is the number one choice to do Black Panther any sort of justice hands down. Everybody else as a 'name' follows suit after him far as i'm concerned. Even before he was an oscar winner he had tons of talent as a film director. Now that he is an oscar winner what do you really think says more if Steve McQueen is hand picked by MCU executive producer Kevin Feige to do Black Panther? (hmm lets see). Get the guy who made ;'12 Years A Slave' OR? Put the man who screwed up Two Fantastic Four movies previously, so now Hollywood is shooting another FF movie. Every comic book fan is cussing out online cos it sounds even much worse than Tim Story's versions.

    Think the Oscar winning Steve McQueen say it all don't you. he ought ot be the number one pick here, not tenth??! I mean thats like putting Uwe bol before Steven Spielberg it sounds that awful in terms of your lacking film knowledge sensibilties and common sense issues.

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    1. First of all, did you Not see the part where I said "IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER"? You must have missed that. And you challenge my so called lack of film knowledge by stating that McQueen is an Oscar winner? The absolute worst barometer to measure a director of a Science Fiction or Fantasy film. Yes, McQueen would give us a great Black Panther film. But as I said, it would be introspective. It certainly wouldn't be action packed. And lastly, I've listened to several Steve McQueen interviews and I guarantee he wouldn't work well with Marvel/Disney. He's his own man when it comes to directing. Oscar winner, please. And Story gets a lot of hate for films that he didn't write. People really need to learn how to distinguish between badly written and badly directed material. Thanks for your comment though.

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