Coralie Fargeat Turned Down ‘Black Widow’ to Make ‘The Substance’

Marvel had some real ambitions when looking for a female filmmaker to helm “Black Widow,” which would eventually be directed Cate Shortland in 2021.

We already know they had talks with Lucrecia Martel, Chloe Zhao, Deniz Gamze Erguven, Melanie Laurent and Kimberly Peirce. All were, at some point, in contention to direct “Black Widow.”

Now, in an expansive interview with Variety, filmmaker Coralie Fargeat confirms that she too was in contention following the success of her 2017 film, “Revenge.” However, she, quite wisely, turned down the offer and instead continued working on “The Substance,” believing Marvel would not give her Final Cut privilege.

Fargeat admits that she was “broke” while getting the Marvel offer, but instead opted to write the ‘Substance’ script on spec, keeping creative control from start to finish. Not only did her gamble pay off, but she is now an Oscar nominated director, and the film is part of this year’s Best Picture lineup.

The most well known, and infamous, story behind Marvel’s search for a ‘Black Widow’ director came from arthouse filmmaker Lucrecia Martel who was quickly discouraged when she was told that she would not have to "worry about the action scenes.”

Martel added, “It turns out some of the Marvel films are available on planes so I’ve seen a few. I find the sound in them is absolutely in very poor taste, the visual effects and the sound of the effects…It’s the selection of the sounds that they’re connecting to the effects, which is actually very ugly. And the way the music is used is actually horrible.”

Marvel’s modus operandi, for years now, has been to snatch up young and promising filmmakers into their corporatized brand of moviemaking. They give them an offer they can’t refuse, but in return the studio winds up controlling every part of the creative process. Fargeat and Martel kept their artistic integrity intact by refusing to take the bait.