Marvel Studios is taking another shot at trying to adapt their flagship African American superhero “Black Panther.” Mark Bailey, a documentary film maker, has been hired to pen a script based on the fictional Wakanda king/superhero. Marvel’s Kevin Feige will produce.
One of the most notable African American superhero, The Black Panther has undergone development hell within Hollywood with several attempts to adapt it for the big screen never panning out. It was first in development with Columbia in the early 1990s with Wesley Snipes to star, but since then it has changed hands several times. First to Artisan Entertainment and then ti Lionsgate in 2005.
Bailey’s has written edgy HBO documentaries such as “Pandemic: Facing AIDS” and “Ghost of Abu Ghraib.” It’s uncertain how he’ll be adapting a comic book, but it’s understandable why Marvel Studio was interested in him. Bailey’s most recent project is for Chockstone Productions, where he adapts the non-fiction book “The Last of the Tribe: The Epic Quest to Save a Long Man in the Amazon..”