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He
dwells in a world of eternal night ? but the blackness is filled
with sounds and scents, tastes and textures that most cannot perceive.
Although attorney Matt Murdock is blind, his other four senses function
with superhuman sharpness. By day, Murdock represents the downtrodden.
At night he is Daredevil, a masked vigilante stalking the dark streets
of the city, a relentless avenger of justice.
For Daredevil, justice is blind?
?and for the guilty, there?s hell to pay.
Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises present, in association
with Marvel Entertainment Group, a New Regency / Horseshoe Bay Production,
DAREDEVIL. Regency, Marvel and Fox together developed the project.
Based on the legendary Marvel Comics character created by Stan Lee
and Bill Everett in 1964, DAREDEVIL stars Ben
Affleck as Matt Murdock and Daredevil, the Man Without
Fear. Also starring are Jennifer Garner
as Elektra Natchios, Matt Murdock?s girlfriend and a martial arts
femme fatale; Michael Clarke Duncan
as Wilson Fisk, New York?s Kingpin of Crime; and Colin
Farrell as Bullseye, the assassin with perfect aim. Jon
Favreau is Franklin ?Foggy? Nelson, Matt Murdock?s lifelong
friend and law partner; Joe Pantoliano
portrays New York Post investigative reporter Ben Urich; David
Keith is Matt?s father, Jack ?The Devil? Murdock; and
Scott Terra plays the young
Matt Murdock.
Written
and directed by Mark Steven Johnson,
the film is produced by Arnon Milchan,
Gary Foster and Avi Arad.
Stan Lee and Bernie
Williams are the executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography Ericson
Core (?The Fast and the Furious?), production designer
Barry Chusid (the upcoming
?Tomorrow?), three-time Oscar? winning costume designer James
Acheson (?Spider-Man,? ?The
Last Emperor?), Academy Award? nominated editor Dennis
Virkler, A.C.E. (?The Fugitive,? ?The Hunt For Red October?)
and editor Armen Minasian (?Don?t
Say a Word?). Music is by Graeme Revell (?Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider?).
Visual effects supervisor Rich Thorne
oversees the film?s 500-plus visual effects shots, including digital
Daredevil and Bullseye doubles and Daredevil?s dazzling ?shadow-world.?
Legendary Hong Kong action choreographer Cheung
Yan Yuen (?Charlie?s Angels?)
along with stunt coordinator Jeff Imada oversaw the film?s gravity-defying
martial arts wirework sequences.
Marvel
Comics? Daredevil: The Man Without Fear made his first
appearance in 1964 at the height of the comic universe?s ?silver
age.? This period also saw the origins of other Marvel stalwarts
such as The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Iron
Man, The Mighty Thor, The X-Men and
Spider-Man. Since then, Daredevil
has become one of the most popular comic book heroes of all time.
Daredevil was part of a world of characters created in an era fraught
with tension and uncertainty. The ever-present threat and fear of
nuclear warfare prompted Marvel writers and artist Bill Everett
to come up with a race of superheroes whose powers are derived from
atomic energy or radioactive experiments gone awry. At the same
time, Marvel made these superheroes real people, with real problems
that the young comic book-reading audience could relate to. In this
real-life Atomic Age, more than ever, people were looking for heroes.
?All the characters I came up with had handicaps,? Stan
Lee notes about the legendary collection of superheroes
he created in a whirlwind three-year period. In 1964, as Lee and
Everett were thinking about their next creation, it occurred to
the legendary comic creators that nobody had yet created a blind
superhero. Running with this idea, Lee carried out extensive research
and learned that when people lose their eyesight, other senses take
over and compensate. ?I wondered, what if those senses could take
over to a much greater degree than would be normal,? Lee recalls.
And thus Daredevil was born.
Unlike
other Marvel characters experiencing radiological accidents that
drastically altered their appearance or biological makeup, Daredevil
remained human. A freak accident gives Daredevil his signature ?radar
sense,? but does not alter him in any other significant ways.
Following the tragic mishap, Matt embarks on a training regimen
to build his body, mind and senses. He learns that he can ?see?
by the vibrations made by sound ? he can even hear a man?s heart
beating ? and he possesses extraordinary senses of touch and smell.
In the words of famed Daredevil comic writer / artist Frank
Miller: ?Matt Murdock is forever inundated by the bio-rhythms
of blood racing through beating hearts and coursing through even
the smallest of veins. What the sighted fail to realize is that
every heartbeat is a signature ? a fingerprint that can be used
to identify one individual in a sea of millions.? Those heartbeats
become Matt Murdock?s constant companion.
Spurred on by his father?s murder, Matt devotes his life to justice.
After earning a law degree, he stays close to his Hells Kitchen
roots. With his longtime friend Franklin ?Foggy? Nelson, he opens
the storefront law office Murdock & Nelson. Matt works as a lawyer,
but the vigilance he shows during the day turns to vigilantism at
night. When criminals beat the system, Matt becomes Daredevil to
bring street-style justice to Hell?s Kitchen. This dichotomy of
good vs. evil, justice vs. vigilantism, defines the moral struggle
Matt faces every day.
Daredevil
remained a popular comic book throughout the 1960s and 1970s. But
when Frank Miller took the reins of the comic in 1980, Daredevil
became one of Marvel?s most important and best-selling comics. Miller
imbued the characters with a dark, gritty and realistic tone new
to the comics world. Over the next few years Miller introduced important
characters into the Daredevil universe, such as Elektra, Matt?s
love interest and future adversary. DAREDEVIL writer / director
Mark Steven Johnson cites Miller?s
Daredevil work from the early 1980s as a key inspiration for the
film.
In the introduction to Daredevil: The Man without Fear, a graphic
novel that celebrated Daredevil?s thirtieth anniversary, Miller
noted some of the complex personal traits that make Daredevil a
compelling character:
?He?s got all the makings of a villain. He?s a natural born rascal,
a mischief-maker, and a scrapper. He?s a liar, who wears a mask
to betray the solemn oath he made his father a thousand times. He?s
a dangerous adept, gifted with a nearly superhuman talent for violence.
He?s a loner, a sinner, a lawyer who breaks the law. But Matt Murdock
is no villain, and no victim. There?s something strong inside him,
passed from unknown mother and doomed father to son. Something tested
by tragedy. Tempered by conscience. Honed by discipline. Something
that holds back the bloodthirsty beast within and forces it to serve
the cause of justice. Most of the time, anyway.?
In
1998, Kevin Smith, the renowned
writer / director of “Clerks,” “Chasing
Amy” and “Dogma”
– and a comic book aficionado – wrote another volume of
Daredevil stories. Emphasizing themes of religion and morality,
Smith’s mission was to present, “a Daredevil you’ve
never seen before: a hero who is about to learn that a man without
fear is a man without faith … and a man without faith is easily
unmade.”
Ben
Affleck, a frequent Smith collaborator and lifelong Daredevil
fan, penned the introduction to the graphic novel Daredevil Visionaries,
a collection of eight comic books written by Smith. “Matt Murdock
lost Elektra to Bullseye when I was just twelve years old,”
Affleck writes. “That saga (now known famously to those in
the comics world as the ‘Frank Miller Daredevils’) touched
and moved me in ways I was then and still now am reluctant to admit,
even to myself. I was fascinated by this man, this red-suited saint,
who always seemed to end up a martyr. It was my own personal introduction
into the world of personal ambiguity. It was a dark corner, a place
where my sympathies were uncertain. It was a strange and wonderful
place where true love was always tragic, heroes had a dark side,
villains were roguishly likable and the best one could hope for
was some sliver of redemption.”
Years
later, Affleck would don Daredevil’s red cowl for the first
motion picture based on the comics he loved. Another of the film’s
principals, writer / director Mark Steven Johnson, shared Affleck’s
deep appreciation for the character and comics. As a ten-year-old
boy growing up in a small town in Minnesota, Johnson could often
be found waiting outside the store that sold his favorite comic
books. “I read them all,” Johnson recalls. “Captain
America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk, and The Silver Surfer were
my mythology growing up.”
However,
Johnson responded most to Daredevil. “I think it was because
he was the only one who had a handicap, that made him unique to
me,” he explains. “What also sets Daredevil apart from
other comic icons is that he’s a real guy with real problems.
He doesn’t have the strength or web-spinning powers of Spider-Man,
the brawn of The Hulk, or the healing powers of Wolverine.
Daredevil is just a guy in a suit. If you shoot him he dies. His
very humanity and flaws are the source of his moral dilemma. I’m
reminded of the Nietzsche quote, ‘He who fights monsters might
take care lest he become a monster.’ That’s what is happening
to Matt Murdock. He’s realizing that he’s starting to
become the thing that he’s sworn himself to protect against.”
According
to DAREDEVIL producer Gary Foster,
Johnson was destined to direct the film. “Mark really understands
the characters and the world in which he operates. He knows to the
last detail what the world is supposed to feel look and sound like.
He’s truly the creative force behind the film.” (Kevin
Smith, a frequent visitor to the set and cameo player agrees: “Mark
is as passionate, if not more so, than anyone can be about making
a Daredevil movie. He read all the important Daredevil work and
not so important work – like mine – and he’s certainly
not going to let any Daredevil fans down.”)
Foster,
the producer of such successful, critically acclaimed films as “Sleepless
in Seattle,” “Tin Cup” and “The
Score,” is partnered with Johnson in their Horseshoe Bay
Productions company. Foster recalls that six years ago Johnson dropped
several Daredevil comic books on his desk, insisting that Foster,
who was not a comics reader, consider them as the basis for a major
motion picture.
Foster
read the Daredevil books, finding them compelling and relatable,
even for a non-enthusiast like himself. “This character has
a lot of conflict in his life – obviously his handicap, but
also his moral dilemma, his divided side,” notes Foster.
Also
serving as producer is Avi Arad,
who is well known throughout the comic book world as a veritable
walking encyclopedia of the Marvel Comics universe. Arad and Marvel
Studios serve as producers on “Spider-Man,”
“X-Men,” “Blade”
and “The Hulk.”
For
Arad, Daredevil is an almost Shakespearean story. “It’s
one of the most amazing sagas we have in the Marvel Universe about
a non-superhero,” he explains. “As a storefront lawyer,
Matt Murdock is not in it for money; he’s in it for justice.
Matt witnesses criminals being freed on technicalities. This is
where the vigilante part of him takes over. He dons his suit at
night and goes out after the guilty, the ones who got away.”
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