Last month Collider broke the news that Deadpool director Tim Miller was developing a Kitty Pryde standalone movie (possibly to direct), but it would ultimately be up to Disney (new owners of the X-Men) to decide whether the phase-shifting mutant would really get her solo outing. Now we know Disney is set on moving forward, and Miller is lined up to direct.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox has hired Brian Michael Bendis to write the script. Bendis has been writing X-Men comics for almost two decades, and he’s also the creator of the characters Miles Morales and Jessica Jones. He used to be a member of the Marvel Creative Committee, which advised Marvel Studios about their movies until 2015. Bendis recently surprised comics fans by agreeing to write a Superman series for DC Comics, but it appears he’s returning to Marvel already.
We don’t know if Ellen Page — who played Kitty Pryde in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past — will be involved, although she did express interest back in 2013.
One thing we do know is the apropos code name Fox has given the project: “143.” This is a reference to 1981’s Uncanny X-Men #143, which contains Kitty Pryde’s first solo adventure in the comics. She’s on her own in the X-Mansion on Christmas Eve and has to fight a demon from the N’Garai dimension. Major spoiler alert: she kills the demon with the jet engines of the X-Jet. That maneuver’s called a “Donnie Darko” in some circles.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)