Think you’ve figured out every movie Marvel Studios has planned for phase three of their release schedule domination? Think again. If Tilda Swinton has her way, the upcoming “Doctor Strange” will have a spin off.
“I am constantly dropping hints to Kevin Feige that I finally think he’s beginning to realize I’m not joking about a prequel,” Swinton says. “I want a prequel of the setting up of Kamar-Taj with Mordo, The Ancient One and Wong. That’s what I want and I’m telling you here right now.”
Right now is a press day in a Beverly Hills hotel for Scott Derrickson’s new adventure that is expected to continue the long string of Marvel blockbusters. And depending on how the picture is received next month, Marvel Studios President and head honcho Feige may just take her request into serious consideration. Plus, it appears Swinton, like many actors who appear in Marvel movies, is under an extended contract. When asked if The Ancient One could reappear after “Doctor Strange” she remarked, “I’m encouraged to believe so.”
“Strange” centers on the origin of Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the Marvel Universe’s Master of the Mystic Arts. Strange is an arrogant and wealthy Manhattan brain surgeon who, thanks to a car accident, loses the ability to use his heads steadily. He travels to Nepal where he finds Kamar-Taj, the home of the Ancient One (Swinton), an ageless sorcerer who teaches Strange how to wield magic to protect the earth from mystical threats. She’s assisted in this endeavor by Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Wong (Benedict Wong), two “masters” who are eager to protect Kamar-Taj and two other important “sanctums” in New York and London from Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), a former student who has been corrupted by the dark side.
Derrickson took quite a chance writing the role specifically for Swinton who was basically his first and only choice.
Swinton recalls, “His pitch was pretty full on because he said ‘I wrote this for you and if you don’t do it I’m going to have to re-write it.’ So, it’s like, ‘O.K., I’ll have to read it.’ He stacked the cards quite heavily and he had written something which I could sort of see a way of doing. It was a very easy sell actually. Sometimes people have ideas for you and they are very convinced and you read them and go…and you don’t quite see it yourself. But, he did in such a way that I thought, ‘I can see how I can spin this.’ ”
There has been some criticism over Swinton being cast to play a character that was Asian in the comic books, but considering how impressively Derrickson has reimagined the character (a former “man servant” for Strange transformed into a worthy standalone hero) concerns over The Ancient One may be slightly tempered once the film hits theaters. And, as expected by anyone who knows Swinton’s unique desire to transform herself for a role, she had some progressive ideas that are unheard of for a Marvel movie.
“There was a big question originally about gender. And we played around with that eventually,” Swinton says. “For the longest time we were thinking of making it more absolutely gender free and having no female preposition and then it all became to cumbersome and we all decided that they would refer to her as ‘she’ but I didn’t go for it. I just thought, whatever. There will be people in wild and woolly places who say, ‘There ain’t no woman who looks like that!’ It’s all fine as far as I’m concerned.”
Moviegoers will also notice that besides being bald, The Ancient One has specific scars on her head. You may even catch one or two on Mordo as well. This unexpected element was an important addition for Swinton in crafting the character.
“It was my suggestion that I be bald. We looked at all sorts of possibilities with the look and it just felt too laid down and too sort of hokey somehow, all the things we went for,” Swinton says. “And I just love the idea that it’s incredibly ancient and gender-free to be bald, but also very supersonic and modern. I thought it looked great. I thought if maybe she had these scars on her head it might show a history and the savagery of that history that she survived all sorts of really gnarly things over the centuries. We’re never going to know what, but she’d earned her stripes as it were.”
If you’re a fan of the Oscar winner and fashion Icon, the good news is cinephiles will be treated two at least two other Swinton films in 2017. She’s already filmed David Michod’s latest drama,“War Machine,” with Brad Pitt as well as “Okja,” Joon-ho Bong’s follow up to “Snowpiercer” with Lily Collins, Jake Gyllenhaal and Paul Dano, among others.
“War Machine” is already finished and Swinton wouldn’t be surprised at this reporter’s suggestion that it might debut at the upcoming Berlin or Cannes Film Festivals. She adds, “You’re gonna get David directing a really, really extraordinary film with Brad Pitt like off the hook great.”
Her excitement was not tempered for “Okja” which recently finished shooting in Vancouver.
“It’s gonna be fantastic. It’s Bong Joon-ho, my great friend who we did ‘Snowpiercer’ together,” Swinton says. “Its really fabulous and this is a film that we’ve been working on for awhile, in fact, ever since ‘Snowpiercer.’ And I’m a co-producer on it and it’s really amazing. What can I say, it’s about an animal.”
Swinton, who reunited with Luca Guadagnino on “A Bigger Splash” this past May, will also film the Italian director’s remake of “Suspiria” alongside “Splash” co-star Dakota Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz sometime next year.
“Doctor Strange” opens nationwide Nov. 4.