Gaiman & del Toro nearly made DR. STRANGE?

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Last week, Marvel President Kevin Feige named DR. STRANGE as one of the three or four characters he is looking to put into development post-AVENGERS, with a tentative release of 2012 or 2013. Neil Gaiman, who was rumored to be involved with this project many moons back has been tracked down by Premiere who asked him directly if he ever came close to working on the project and whether he would still be interested in the character over at Marvel.

I would love to write Dr. Strange. It would be absolutely one of my dream jobs a Dr. Strange movie. Last year I was out in Budapest for three weeks on the set of Hellboy II with Guillermo, and I mentioned to him that I've been, in very very early sort of "I would to do this" talks with Marvel about doing a Dr. Strange movie, and Guillermo's reaction was, "Neil, I want to direct it!"...and Marvel, I think, were very excited too.

Though of course Guillermo del Toro is now tied up for a very long time with THE HOBBIT and post that, has at least half a dozen desirable projects he is desperate to work on. There ain't no way he is ever going to have a clear schedule to do a Marvel project such as this. Gaiman went on to say he wouldn't be so interested in the project without del Toro's involvement. Which is bad news for Marvel because Gaiman is a genius. source - first showing via - filmstalker