What kind of story can a standalone Black Cat movie have?
Several months have passed since Amy Pascal announced a standalone Black Cat movie, but what could the plot entail?
While promoting the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, producer and former co-chairperson at Sony Pictures, Amy Pascal, informed Heroic Hollywood that a standalone Black Cat movie is still gauging enough interest at the studio. The film that is slated to center on Spider-Man’s love interest, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, was once a team-up movie involving European mercenary, Silver Sable. The proposed movie, Silver & Black, had Gina Prince-Bythewood tapped to direct. Currently, Bythewood is producing the solo Black Cat film.
After the first installment of (SUMC) Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, Venom, the next entry in the franchise is Morbius, which will arrive on July 31, 2020, and the sequel to Venom will follow in October of the same year. At some point, Black Cat will fit into those plans, but the question is what could a standalone Black Cat film be about? In this editorial, we’ll go through the history of the development of the scrapped Silver & Black film, what the plot of the potential team-up movie would have been and two scenarios regarding what a subsequent SUMC-set film featuring Black Cat could be about.
Here Kitty, Kitty…
Before proceeding, it must be stated that since Pascal’s statement earlier this summer, there have been no further updates reported to the public on the standalone Black Cat film. What we know is that Bythewood will be also be producing a Silver Sable film in addition to writing the Felicia Hardy-led feature. Sony revealed other female directors will helm both projects. Felicity Jones who portrayed Black Cat’s civilian identity in The Amazing Spider–Man 2 has expressed interest in playing the character since 2015 and remained so five years after the Marc Webb franchise ended.
Glass Ceiling then came Silver & Black
As far back as 2009, Felicia Hardy was set to be introduced in the defunct Spider–Man 4, with Anne Hathaway in mind for the role. Julia Stiles, Rachel McAdams and Romola Garai were also potential candidates. Around that time, Sam Raimi had a direction that contrasted with the character depicted in the comics. She was intended to become a super-villain known as “Vulturess”, who would have partnered with John Malkovich’s Vulture but, in later interviews, Raimi stated he always proposed for the character to be the Black Cat in his film. In 2010, Spider–Man 4 was canceled after Raimi decided to not pursue the film.
Following The Amazing Spider–Man 2 and its lukewarm and inadequate box office performance, plans to expand Sony’s very own shared-universe were reassessed. Enter Codename: Glass Ceiling. In 2014, Birth.Movies.Death confirmed a female superhero film was in development under the aforementioned working title with Westworld scribe Lisa Joy attached, which could feature characters tied to Spider-Man. Aside from Black Cat and Silver Sable, Stunner, Firestar and Spider-Woman were also involved.
After Venom’s announcement, Glass Ceiling got passed around before being reworked into another film, this time just featuring Black Cat and Silver Sable. Chris Yost was rewriting Joy’s script. In May 2017, Bythewood signed on to direct. Pascal and Matt Tolmach were set to produce. Filming was set to begin in late 2017, with the style in the vein of a thriller and dark buddy film comparable to Thelma & Louise and Midnight Run. it was set for release on February 8 of this year. Filming was set to take place in Atlanta, Georgia and Mexico.
By February, Silver & Black was delayed indefinitely due to script concerns. After Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet submitted a draft, which the director and co-writer went on to polish. Although, she was still not happy with the script and, by August, the project was canceled.
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The Leak from That Hashtag Show
That Hashtag Show covered a source from the latter media outlet that Silver & Black centered on Silver Sablinova/Silver Sable, a bounty hunter, working for the U.S. government who set her sights on Felicia Hardy, a high-end cat burglar who has stolen from a multitude of people — who are calling for a hit to be put on her.
As the plot unfolds, the rumor detailed Silver Sable going after Black Cat for other reasons more personal – Hardy is the target who stands between her and Mendel Stromm – the man responsible for performing experiments on her people from Symkaria. Stromm is also who Hardy receives her enhancements from to complete her heists but, on the flip side, Stromm also wants Hardy back under his wing. So he sends Spidey villains – Scorpion and Tarantula – to locate Black Cat.
Stromm, who made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man No.37, is better-known for once being a partner of Norman Osborn, who, of course, went on to become the Green Goblin. Stromm was also the creator of the strength/intelligence enhancing compound – the Goblin Formula. Osborn had Stromm arrested for embezzlement in order to acquire his research for himself. Stromm went on to become the supervillain Robot Master and then Gaunt. We are uncertain as to the legitimacy of the plot leak.
Black Cat and Ms. Jones
If Jones were to reprise her role as Hardy, the best course of action would be to set it within the SUMC, as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is uncertain within the MCU after two subsequent films. The Goblin’s girlfriend/Oscorp assistant depiction of Hardy can either receive a minor retcon or a hardball retcon that rips TASM 2 right out of continuity. In this case, I will go for the former, which is only the bare minimum of reference to her ties with the Osborn’s and their business, Oscorp.
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The standalone Black Cat spin-off will see Jones’ Hardy as a former employee of Oscorp, who is attempting to take down Fisk Industries for using her father, Walter Hardy, as a scapegoat for Chameleon’s crimes and forcing the Hardy’s to go under witness protection under a different alias, with her last name being changed to Hardesky. For years, Hardy closely sided with successful and resourceful men like athletes, lawyers, entertainers, investors and company men to advance her goal, until she comes across the Osborn’s.
Black Cat will be, for all intents and purposes, an origin story but not structured like your typical superhero film. Instead, the solo Black Cat film will be a fall from grace and a quest to reclaim what is rightfully hers — the Hardy name and evidence that her father had been wronged for a crime he did not commit. Her backstory will detail the circumstances of how Hardy managed to end up in a position of strength, anonymity and power amongst allies in high places.
Hardy became the Black Cat after stealing a prototype genetically engineered compound from Oscorp listed FB-Cas9-194 nicknamed “Feral Beast” or “Feral” – derived from the blood of Sergei Kravinoff – the half-brother of the Chameleon and better known as Kraven the Hunter. The newly-empowered Hardy, using her cat-like abilities and combat skills, is attempting to steal enough incriminating files to take down the Kingpin and his company once and for all.
Trapped in a Web of Lies
Another version of the Black Cat film will center on the brief romance between Hardy and Spider-Man, while the central conflict is with Garrison Klum, a talented violinist who is also known as the rising drug kingpin, Mr. Brownstone, with the ability to teleport inanimate objects with his mind. Aside from his brother, Francis, Klum is a sadist who has a past with Hardy and her father. Through flashbacks, we discover the drug dealer has a knack for moving drugs into his victims and causing them to overdose. He also used drug addicts as human guinea pigs to traffic drugs.
Partly inspired by and ultimately a loose adaptation of the six-issue comic book limited series Spider–Man and the Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do by Kevin Smith with art by Terry and Rachel Dodson, the movie will follow a non-linear account of Hardy’s backstory on how she transformed into the Black Cat with enhanced strength, agility, senses and psychic ability to affect and counter the probability of events. It is implied that the Kingpin’s organization was behind granting her those abilities through an experimental procedure.
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While this is a crime-drama, this also will be a love story, with Hardy struggling to come to terms with balancing the Black Cat persona in her daily life and putting aside her life of crime in favor of spending time with Spidey’s civilian identity, Peter Parker. While Klum is the primary antagonist in this story, Spider-Man is the secondary antagonist of the film. Other parties involved are Big Man, Scorpia and the telekinetic femme fatale, Danielle Forte, better known as Mind Blast.