Joe Carnahan, of The Grey fame, was recently tapped to helm a reboot of the Daredevil franchise, one that would wipe Affleck’s from the face of the earth. It sounded fantastic. Unfortunately Fox and Marvel are currently in the midst of some heated negotiations as to who owns the character (Last I heard Marvel had regained control of the franchise, but it doesn’t seem that simple or fully sealed off just yet) and so Carnahan’s project was scrapped. Because of that bad news he has released to the public the sizzle reel he used to pitch the project, a proof of concept video that he edited together from a number of outside sources; scenes from old movies, comic panels, etc. and it’s kinda amazing. Check it out after the blind jump:

Now is that not a Daredevil film that you would pay to see? I know that I would be there opening night. I love the idea of combining the gritty New York streets of the seventies (similar to how Azzarello’s Rorschach run which begun today does) with the martial arts films of that era; it could have resulted in the kind of stylish and fun flick that the original stuffy approach simply couldn’t match.

I really hope that something still comes of this, that Marvel see’s the video and the fanswell of support that it should get and consider keeping him on-board but I guess we’ll have to wait and see; it may be too gritty for their very svelte and shiny new universe. If this and Tom Jane’s perfect Punisher short from a few weeks ago Dirty Laundry (which you need to watch) could be combined into a kind of complimentary universe that exists alongside the main Marvel U I would be a very happy man. If not Rorschach artist Lee Bermejo has already put his hand up to do the art for a comic version of the script.