The True Story Behind Wes Craven's Failed Doctor Strange Movie

3. Guillermo Del Toro And Neil Gaiman's $165 Million Pitch

Guillermo del Toro Pacific Rim
Warner Bros. Pictures

Marvel Studios joining forces with Paramount Pictures was the beginning of the MCU we know today. Mickey Mouse might be the one in charge these days, but fans often forget that Paramount distributed those early MCU movies. To this day, the studio's logo remains in front of Iron Man, Thor, and others.

That relationship began in 2005, and it was around this time that the two parties mapped out a rough slate of movies. This initially included projects based on characters like Nick Fury, Cloak and Dagger, Power Pack, and, yes, Doctor Strange - but as we now know, not all of these heroes would make it to the big screen.

Cloak and Dagger
Marvel Comics

Each of these movies could have budgets as high as $165 million, so it was important that Marvel Studios got them right, because such a big investment required some big box-office returns.

This in mind, it's not surprising that surrealist creatives Guillermo del Toro and Neil Gaiman had their Doctor Strange pitch rejected in 2007. They're both brilliant minds, no doubt, but perhaps not the safest choices with so much money on the line. And remember, this was day-one MCU - Marvel Studios wasn't as open to taking risks as it is today.

Even without del Toro and Gaiman, Marvel Studios was keen to get a Doctor Strange movie off the ground, courting various writers, directors, and actors over the next couple of years...

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!