Marvel Director To Adapt One Of The World’s Most Acclaimed Plays
One of the upcoming and famed directors in the MCU has been tasked with adapting one of the most famous stageplays ever created.
Nia DaCosta is blazing quite the trail through Hollywood right now. After having an acclaimed directorial debut with Little Woods in 2018, she took on a sequel to Candyman in 2021, which she also co-wrote with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfield. She is also set to take on The Marvels for the MCU. Now, she’d been tapped to write and direct an adaptation of the acclaimed stageplay Hedda Gabler.
Hedda Gabler is a Henrik Ibsen play from 1891 which has been adapted various times for the screen and stage. One of the most notable is 1975’s Hedda, which nabbed Glenda Jackson a Best Actress nom at the Academy Awards. Hedda Gabler will be produced by Gabrielle Nadig, who also produced Nia DaCosta’s, Little Woods. It will also be produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and MGM’s Orion Pictures. Hedda Gabler tells the story of a woman named Hedda Gabler who lives in a house she doesn’t want, feels trapped in her marriage, and whose ex-lover reappears in her life.
MGM and Plan B are seemingly diving headfirst with their newly formed relationship with Nia DaCosta, as they’ve also tapped her to direct the adaptation of the Ta-Nahisi Coates novel The Water Dancer. It’s no surprise that the studios would want to lock DaCosta down for more projects, as she has quickly proved that she has a strong directorial voice. In addition to the acclaim of Little Woods, her second directorial effort Candyman impressed financially during the pandemic, pulling in $77 million worldwide. This also brought DaCosta the honor of becoming the first Black woman director to open at the top of the U.S. box office.
Of course, one of the biggest projects on Nia DaCosta’s docket is the upcoming MCU film The Marvels. While Candyman was a sequel/remake of a well-known horror film and had Jordan Peele’s name behind it, there’s no denying the blockbuster draw of an MCU film. The Marvels will no doubt be the biggest of DaCosta’s movies to date, helping to launch her rising star even further. The Marvels will be a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel. Brie Larson returns as Carol Danvers/Brie Larson and we’ll also see the big-screen debut of Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, who we’ve been meeting in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. It will also reunite DaCosta with Teyonah Parris, who worked with DaCosta on Candyman. Parris will be reprising her role from WandaVision as Monica Rambeau. The Marvels is expected to come out on July 28, 2023.
Nia DaCosta was also announced to direct a TV series based on the book “The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America’s 16th President-and Why It Failed” by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. In short, it seems like DaCosta has plenty of interesting projects to keep her busy over the next couple of years. It’ll be intriguing to see the quality she brings to dramatic films like Hedda Gabler and The Water Dancer along with huge blockbusters like The Marvels. If she continues to put out the same quality she’s brought to her debut projects, these movies should definitely be worth checking out.
