Is Joaquin Phoenix a bit too strange for Marvel?

In the weeks leading up to last summer’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, rumors were swirling like a cloak of levitation around Marvel Studios and its long-rumored big-screen treatment of Doctor Strange, the master of the mystic arts and sometime superhero whose arrival promises to inject Marvel’s ever-expanding cinematic universe with a welcome dose of the supernatural. The studio had already hired Scott Derrickson, the genre-friendly filmmaker behind Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and fan expectations soared after the news broke that Joaquin Phoenix was in final talks to play the doctor himself. But Comic-Con came and went, and although convention-goers were treated to star-studded panels and exclusive sneak previews of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man, no official announcement was made regarding Doctor Strange.

 

So what’s the hold-up? After all, Marvel is smack-dab in the middle of its most successful year to date. Last spring’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved that superhero flicks can be bold and topical without losing touch with their four-color origins, while August’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a film once viewed as a considerable box office risk, recently crossed the $500 million mark worldwide thanks to the wry, irreverent direction of James Gunn and the universal appeal of profanity-spewing raccoons, attractive green-skinned aliens and dancing Baby Groots. So why not strike while the iron is hot? The answer, as it turns out, might be very simple: One man is refusing to say the magic words.

Joaquin Phoenix is unquestionably an exceptional talent, one who could easily project both the arrogance and nobility inherent in Stephen Strange. From the teenage lunkhead driven to murder by Nicole Kidman’s devious weathergirl in Gus Van Sant’s media satire To Die For to the sneering, incestuous Emperor Commodus in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator to his tragic, tortured take on Johnny Cash in James Mangold’s Walk the Line, this is an actor who gives himself to an almost unnerving extent, crawling so deep inside his characters that one wonders how he’s ever able to find his way out again. Yet the world of the effects-driven blockbuster — especially one with a potentially limitless supply of contractually obligated sequels — is largely foreign to him, so it’s easy to see why he might be reluctant to sign on for a role that could conceivably limit his professional options and stifle his growth as a performer.

The last time Hollywood threatened to cast him in the mold of the conventional leading man, Phoenix rebelled by staging a controlled public meltdown that was used as fodder for the polarizing mockumentary I’m Still Here, featuring Phoenix as a bedraggled, mumbling version of himself who elects to forsake acting in favor of an ill-advised foray into hip-hop, heavy drug use and unprotected sex with a parade of progressively aggressive prostitutes. The film, directed by Phoenix’s friend and brother-in-law Casey Affleck as a muddled commentary on the pressures of the celebrity-publicity system, confounded the majority of critics and audiences when it was released in 2010, but it seemed to rekindle something within Phoenix, igniting the fire that would go on to fuel his two greatest performances: the damaged war veteran who falls for the honey-toned platitudes of a wily cult leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and the lovesick dreamer who finds companionship with his smart phone in Spike Jonze’s Her.

Casting Phoenix as Doctor Strange would be a calculated risk for Marvel as well. The studio is primarily known for stocking its films with relative unknowns, at least when it comes to the leads. Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth weren’t even close to being household names before they signed on Marvel’s the dotted line. Robert Downey, Jr., whose career was in dire need of resuscitation before he was cast in the first Iron Man, is the exception that proves the rule.

Marvel’s reasons for adopting this policy are three-fold: 1) Casting no-names ensures that star power won’t overwhelm the superhero persona in question; 2) These actors will command smaller paychecks, at least at first; 3) This in turn allows smaller roles to go to more established actors (think of Anthony Hopkins in Thor or Glenn Close in Guardians of the Galaxy), who will lend their gravitas to the project without griping about long shooting schedules or trying to assert creative control. If Phoenix lands the role, the film will be at the mercy of a brilliant but mercurial personality, similar to what Marvel experienced when Edward Norton rewrote the script for 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and balked when studio executives told him they were sticking with an earlier draft.

No matter who ends up playing him, adapting Doctor Strange was always going to be a challenge. The powers and abilities of the character, co-created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, have gone through multiple revisions since his 1963 debut in the pages of Strange Tales, but like many superheroes, his origin remains essentially the same: a brilliant but prideful neurosurgeon named Stephen Strange is forced to give up his practice after a debilitating car accident causes uncontrollable tremors in his hands. Desperate to restore his dexterity, Strange searches the world for a cure, eventually stumbling upon an ageless hermit known as the Ancient One. The kindly mage senses the doctor’s untapped potential for good and agrees to take him on as his disciple after Strange helps the old man defeat the treacherous conjurer Baron Mordo.

This deceptively simple backstory has given rise to a dedicated niche fandom over the years, including filmmakers Wes Craven and Guillermo del Toro, both of whom have attempted to mount their own big-screen versions of Doctor Strange, only to be met with either general disinterest or ill-timed studio restructuring.

The comic series itself, with its psychedelic imagery and freewheeling references to Eastern mysticism, was enthusiastically embraced by the 1960s counterculture, and its back issues are still a trip to read today. If Derrickson can find a way to transcend the tried-and-true Marvel formula and tap into the same creative wellspring Lee and Ditko once drew from, having an actor of Phoenix’s caliber in the role won’t just be an advantage; it will be a necessity.

 

 

Landon McDonald is a graduate student studying public relations. His column, “Screen Break,” runs Wednesdays.