In June of last year, writers Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Conan) were hired by Marvel Studios to develop a screenplay for their big-screen adaptation of Doctor Strange. At that time, Patrick Dempsey (Transformers 3) had reportedly expressed interest in the lead role.
Recently, while speaking with the LATimes, Dempsey stated that he’s not only hoping to play the character in either a TV series or a feature film, he’s now lobbying for the role.
“I’ve been lobbying for that. There’s a whole bunch of people [among the ‘Grey’s Anatomy ‘ crew] who are into comics and Marvel, too, on the set and they’re like, ‘Doctor Strange, that’s the one you should do.’ It would be fantastic. It’d be a great TV show, especially for HBO or something like that. I don’t know if I’d necessarily do another show, a drama, that’s 24 episodes again. HBO you’re at 13 and I think that’s much better. It’s just so hard to sustain the quality after three years if you’re doing 24, 25 episodes a year. It all depends on who you have as a writing team – it’s how you set it up, what’s the tone and making sure you’re not locked into this one-season success [mentality], you can’t be afraid to think beyond that.”
Dempsey even stated that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige knows that he wants the role.
“He knows what’s going on. There was stuff going on. At Comic-Con they were talking about me playing it and there was a rumor that I’d been cast. I mean, it’s something that’s kind of out there and, you know, I’ve been looking at that. It would be a fun one to do. Hopefully, doing something like ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ is about to show myself in an action situation where I’m not mister-weepy-doctor guy, you know, not McDreamy. You have to change that in people’s view. I’m still hungry for other things. I’d love to play Doctor Strange.”
In other stars who want to be Marvel characters news…
While out doing the press rounds for the upcoming movie Fast Five, actor Dwayne Johnson (Arabian Nights) spoke with MTV and expressed his interest in on the role of Captain Marvel’s nemesis Black Adam in the long-rumored Captain Marvel movie. There hasn’t been word of any progress on the film actually happening but Johnson thinks it still may happen some day.
“I haven’t let it go. I love that idea. I’ve always loved the idea of playing Black Adam. In Hollywood, a lot of times when something is in development, it just takes a lot of time. So it’s in development hell right now. Who knows what’s going to happen with that. Maybe, maybe not – I’m always here.”
Doctor Strange is in development and Captain Marvel is in development hell.
