Doctor Strange turns 10 this week, and the 2016 Marvel Studios film—directed by Scott Derrickson from a screenplay he wrote with Jon Spaihts and C. Robert Cargill—remains a fan favourite. It is the 14th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the road to the screen was far stranger than the finished spell.
It nearly became a 1992 Full Moon movie
Producer Charles Band optioned the property from Marvel and began developing a film at his studio Full Moon Entertainment. The option expired before production could begin, and the project was reworked into the 1992 film Doctor Mordrid, whose titular character bore similarities to Doctor Strange.
A 1986 Bob Gale script kicked it off
A film based on the Marvel Comics character Doctor Strange was initially listed as being in development at New World Pictures, with a script dated January 21, 1986, by Bob Gale. It never went further into production. By 1989, Alex Cox had co-written a script with Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee, with the character traveling to the Fourth Dimension before facing the villain Dormammu on Easter Island, Chile. A film using this script was almost made by Regency, but Regency’s films were distributed by Warner Bros. at the time, which was in a dispute with Marvel over merchandising.
Wes Craven and David S. Goyer both took a turn
By December 1992, Wes Craven had signed to write and direct Doctor Strange for release in either 1994 or 1995, with Savoy Pictures distributing. In 1995, David S. Goyer had completed a script for the film. By June 2001, Dimension Films acquired the film rights, with Goyer back on board as writer and director.
The 2007 del Toro-Gaiman version went darker
In 2007, Guillermo del Toro and Neil Gaiman pitched a version of the film to Marvel, with Gaiman writing and del Toro directing. Their version would have seen the character be an alcoholic.
Derrickson pitched with a 12-page scene
In June 2014, Derrickson was chosen to direct. He had written a 12-page scene for the film featuring Strange and an assailant fighting in the astral plane while a doctor attempts to save Strange’s physical body in a hospital, based on a sequence from the comic Doctor Strange: The Oath.
Kamar-Taj moved from Tibet to Nepal
Cargill said that the location of Kamar-Taj was shifted from Tibet to Nepal to prevent censorship by the Chinese government. Derrickson chose Nepal as a location to feature an ‘Eastern city’ that would not be familiar to most audiences. Principal photography began in Nepal on November 4, 2015, under the working title Checkmate.
The April 2015 earthquake changed the plan
After scouting and deciding on locations in the country, many of those areas were destroyed by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake. Rather than choosing another country, Derrickson and Cumberbatch felt that bringing attention and tourism to Nepal following the event ‘was all the more reason to shoot there’. Cumberbatch added that shooting in Nepal was ‘absolutely vital to this film’ because the portal for a spiritual, otherworldly dimension needed to be in a place that was itself spiritual and marvelous. The eventual filming locations around the Kathmandu Valley included the Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath Temples, Thamel and New Road in Kathmandu, and the Patan Durbar Square in Patan.
The crash was shot at up to 1000 fps
Vision Research Phantom Flex 4Ks, which shoot up to 1000 fps, were used for high-speed sequences like Strange’s car crash. Cinematographer Ben Davis described Doctor Strange as Marvel’s Fantasia, and noted that a lot of previsualization was required to figure out how to shoot the ‘psychedelic’, M. C. Escher-inspired imagery.
A Kathmandu street was rebuilt in Surrey
The real Kathmandu street that led into the fictional Kamar-Taj courtyard was replicated at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England. Production designer Charles Wood described it as ‘very hard because Kathmandu is a most beautiful city and it’s steeped in history’. For authenticity, the set was dressed with real food, and populated with dogs, pigeons, and Nepalese extras, many of whom were relatives of people who live on the real Kathmandu street.
Which of these Doctor Strange details caught you off guard? Tell us your favourite making-of fact.
Facts from Wikipedia: Doctor Strange (2016 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
