Back in September, the almost unbelievable news emerged that Sony was developing a film about the Spider-Man supporting character ‘Madame Web’, who has classically been depicted as a blind, paraplegic, elderly woman, also known as Cassandra Webb. Now comes the announcement that not only is this movie really in the works, but now a director has been attached– S.J. Clarkson. While it did not offer many details, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Clarkson’s attachment to a “female-focused” Marvel project for Sony. It now seems that Collider has confirmed that this film is indeed ‘Madame Web’.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that a few years ago, Marvel wrote Cassandra Web out of the comics and had her pass her psychic abilities on to a younger character, Julia Carpenter. Carpenter was the second Marvel character to go by the name Spider-Woman, and she has also operated under the codename Arachne. Her original black and white costume subconsciously inspired Peter Parker’s similar suit, which turned out to be the symbiote Venom.
Shortly after the announcement of Clarkson’s involvement arrived, it was also revealed that Marc Guggenheim has been tapped to write the screenplay for another female character from the Spider-Verse– Jackpot.
Sony previously had plans for a movie called ‘Silver & Black’ starring two other female Spider-Friends– Silver Sable and Black Cat. Gina Prince-Bythewood was set to helm that picture, but Sony decided to scrap it and give the two characters their own solo movies instead. It’s interesting that Sony is now announcing two new solo movies featuring female leads, but neither of them is Silver Sable or Black Cat.
Clarkson was previously attached to direct a new ‘Star Trek’ movie, but Paramount determined that the script was too expensive to produce, and so it was scrapped.
She also directed a pilot for a planned ‘Game of Thrones’ spin-off for HBO, but the project was not ordered to series.
Clarkson has experience directing characters from the Marvel Comics Universe, having helmed two episodes a piece of ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Defenders’ for Netflix. Among her other credits are ‘Life On Mars’, ‘Heroes’, ‘Dexter’, and ‘Collateral’.
What do you think of a ‘Madame Web’ movie?
