Public Servant Lifestyle

Marvel Comics' legendary Man Without Fear makes it at last to the big screen.

Daredevil

By day, attorney Matt Murdock represents the downtrodden in the courtrooms of New York. At night, he is Daredevil, a masked vigilante stalking the dark streets of the city, a relentless avenger of justice.

Murdock is blind – having lost his sight in a childhood radiation accident - but his other four senses function with superhuman sharpness, thanks to a freak mutation caused by that same accident. He may dwell in a world of eternal night – but the blackness is filled with sounds and scents, tastes and textures that most cannot perceive.

Daredevil is based on the enduring Marvel Comics character - one of the most popular comic book heroes of all time and one of the most beloved characters in the entire Marvel Universe – who was created by comics legends Stan Lee and Bill Everett. The character debuted in issue one of his own comic - sporting a soon to be abandoned yellow and red costume - in - 1964 and the monthly title is still going strong to this day!

The new film version of Daredevil stars Ben Affleck in the dual role of Matt Murdock and his vigilante alter-ego; Daredevil, the Man Without Fear. Also starring is Jennifer Garner as assassin Elektra, Matt Murdock’s girlfriend. The Daredevil-Elektra/Affleck-Garner dynamic looks set to make the film the sexiest and most morally complex comic book movie ever.

Kingpin of New York

Michael Clarke Duncan plays the villainous Wilson Fisk, New York’s self-styled ‘Kingpin’ of Crime; and Colin Farrell stars as Bullseye, an assassin with perfect aim in whose hands almost any object can become a deadly weapon. Marvel Comics’ Daredevil: The Man Without Fear made his first appearance at the height of what has since become known in comics circles as the 'silver age'. This period also saw the origins of numerous other Marvel titles, including: The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, The X-Men and The Amazing Spider-Man.

Stan Lee

Daredevil was part of a world of characters created in an era like ours, fraught with tension and uncertainty. Author Stan Lee – who also created Spider-Man - made his superheroes real people, with real problems that the comics buying public could relate to. Daredevil in particular has deeply human flaws, is far from invulnerable in battle and is – quite literally – handicapped when it comes to facing his foes

“All the characters I came up with had handicaps,” Stan Lee notes about the legendary collection of superheroes he created in a whirlwind three-year period. In 1964, as Lee and Everett were thinking about their next creation, it occurred to the legendary comic creators that nobody had yet created a blind superhero. Running with this idea, Lee carried out extensive research and learned that when people lose their eyesight, other senses take over and compensate.

“I wondered, what if those senses could take over to a much greater degree than would be normal,” Lee recalls. Thus Daredevil was born. Unlike other superhumans featured in other titles experiencing radiological accidents that drastically altered their appearance or biological makeup, Daredevil remained human. A freak accident – borne from an act of selfless courage - gives Daredevil his signature ‘radar sense’, but does not alter him in any other significant ways.

Frank Miller

Following his tragic mishap, the young Murdock embarks on a training regimen to build his body, mind and senses. He learns that he can ‘see’ by the vibrations made by sound - he can even hear a man’s heart beating - and he possesses extraordinary senses of touch and smell. In the words of famed Daredevil comic writer and artist Frank Miller: “Matt Murdock is forever inundated by the bio-rhythms of blood racing through beating hearts and coursing through even the smallest of veins. What the sighted fail to realize is that every heartbeat is a signature – a fingerprint that can be used to identify one individual in a sea of millions.” As he trains and develops his abilities, those heartbeats become Matt Murdock’s constant companion and the source of his only real ‘super-power’.

Justice

Spurred on by his father’s murder, Matt devotes his life to justice. After earning a law degree, he stays close to his New York roots and - with his longtime friend Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson - he opens the storefront law offices of Murdock & Nelson. Matt works as a lawyer, but the vigilance he shows during the day turns to vigilantism at night. When criminals beat the system, Matt becomes Daredevil to bring street-style justice to Hell’s Kitchen. This dichotomy of good vs. evil, justice vs. vigilantism, defines the moral struggle Matt faces every day.

Bullseye

Ben Affleck (Changing Lanes, Dogma, The Sum of All Fears) a frequent Smith collaborator and lifelong Daredevil fan, penned the introduction to the graphic novel Daredevil: Visionaries, a collection of eight comic books written by Smith. “Matt Murdock lost Elektra to Bullseye when I was just twelve years old,” Affleck writes. “That saga (now known famously to those in the comic’s world as the ‘Frank Miller Daredevils’) touched and moved me in ways I was then and still now am reluctant to admit, even to myself. I was fascinated by this man, this red-suited saint, who always seemed to end up a martyr.

"It was my own personal introduction into the world of personal ambiguity. It was a dark corner, a place where my sympathies were uncertain. It was a strange and wonderful place where true love was always tragic, heroes had a dark side, villains were roguishly likable and the best one could hope for was some sliver of redemption.”

Years later, Affleck would don Daredevil’s red cowl for the first motion picture based on the comics he loved. Another of the film’s principals, writer/director Mark Steven Johnson, shared Affleck’s deep appreciation for the character and comics. As a ten-year-old boy growing up in a small town in Minnesota, Johnson could often be found waiting outside the store that sold his favorite comic books. “I read them all,” Johnson recalls. However, Johnson responded most to the Daredevil title. “I think it was because he was the only one who had a handicap, that made him unique to me,” he explains. “What also sets Daredevil apart from other comic icons is that he’s a real guy with real problems.

"He doesn’t have the strength or web-spinning powers of Spider-Man, the brawn of The Hulk, or the healing powers of Wolverine. Daredevil is just a guy. If you shoot him he dies. His very humanity and flaws are the source of his moral dilemma. I’m reminded of the quote, ‘He who fights monsters might take care lest he become a monster.’ That’s what is happening to Matt Murdock. He’s realising that he’s starting to become the thing that he’s sworn himself to protect against.”

Kevin Smith

According to Daredevil producer Gary Foster, Johnson was destined to direct the film. “Mark really understands the characters and the world in which he operates. He knows to the last detail what the world is supposed to feel look and sound like. He’s truly the creative force behind the film.” (Kevin Smith, a frequent visitor to the set and cameo player agrees: “Mark is as passionate, if not more so, than anyone can be about making a Daredevil movie. He read all the important Daredevil work and not so important work - like mine – and he’s certainly not going to let any Daredevil fans down.”)

Foster recalls that six years ago Johnson dropped several Daredevil comic books on his desk, insisting that Foster, who was not a comics reader, consider them as the basis for a major motion picture. He read the Daredevil comic books, finding them compelling and relatable, even for a non-enthusiast like himself. “This character has a lot of conflict in his life – obviously his handicap, but also his moral dilemma, his divided side,” notes Foster. Also serving as producer is Avi Arad, who is well known throughout the comic book world as a veritable walking encyclopedia of the Marvel Comics universe. Arad and Marvel Studios serve as producers on Spider-Man, X-Men, Blade and the forthcoming The Hulk.

For Arad, Daredevil is an almost Shakespearean story. “It’s one of the most amazing sagas we have in the Marvel Universe about a non-superhero,” he explains. “He’s absolutely unique: flawed, sometimes filled with rage - even his one true love wants him dead.”

The Daredevil filmmakers have assembled a cast with the emotional and physical substance to bring life to the dark, exciting, and sometimes humorous world of Matt Murdock and Daredevil.

Their top priority, of course, was casting the role of The Man without Fear. The character is like none other in the comics canon. The sightless hero’s fingers can feel the faint impressions of ink on a printed page, allowing him to read by touch. He can perceive minute changes in the temperature and pressure of the surrounding atmosphere. Daredevil can identify individuals by smell alone, no matter how they might try to camouflage their natural odor. He can hear a heartbeat at a distance of twenty feet, tell whether someone is lying by listening to changes in the heart’s rhythm and identify people by the specific patterns of their heartbeats.

He possesses the acrobatic ability of a circus performer and the pugilistic skills of a heavyweight prizefighter. Though he has studied various Asian martial-arts techniques and American boxing, his fighting style is unique; it includes movements and blows from many disciplines.

Johnson, having read Ben Affleck’s forward to the Kevin Smith graphic novel, knew that the actor was born to play the masked vigilante. “Not only is Ben a talented and physically gifted actor, he’s as big a comic book geek as I am,” Johnson laughs. “A bonus was that, at six-three, he’s physically imposing. This story is about believability, so it was important to have an actor who looks like he could play someone who puts his body on the line every night. Ben has the acting chops, physical ability, emotional sensitivity and awareness necessary to play Matt Murdock and Daredevil,” says Gary Foster. “You also totally believe him as a romantic lead. And being a fan since he was a kid, Ben really understands the world of Daredevil.”

Affleck acknowledges that playing Daredevil was more than a typical acting assignment and that he was thrilled to see this important part of his childhood come to life. “The character and comics had this magical kind of mythical appeal to me,” he says. “Daredevil is dark and tough, but also sort of sexy and romantic. It’s a challenge to take the two-dimensional medium of comics and create a live-action world, making it believable and compelling, all without betraying the original concept.”

Elektra Assassin

Golden Globe-winning actress Jennifer Garner (star of TV’s Alias) takes on the role of Matt’s love interest – and Daredevil foe – deadly femme fatale Elektra Natchios, the daughter of Greek business tycoon Nikolas Natchios. In the comics Elektra is a ninja, a former agent of the shadowy organisation known only as ‘The Hand’ and a consummate practitioner of the martial arts as well as an Olympic-level athlete and gymnast. Her weapons of choice is a pair of three-pronged sai.

The filmmakers carried out an exhaustive search for the right actress to play Elektra – someone dynamic enough to play a wealthy businessman’s privileged daughter, yet who could turn on a dime and become a lethal warrior. “A lot of people were clamoring for the part,” recalls Foster. “We saw people in Los Angeles, New York, Europe and Australia. We had always wanted to bring in Jennifer Garner to read, but she wasn’t available because of her television series. Then schedule changes made it possible for her to meet with us. At that point we had seen hundreds of actresses, but when she came in to read we just knew: ‘There’s Elektra.’”

“Jennifer has an ability to be so sweet and so pure looking, but then you dress her up, she’s sexy and exotic,” says Avi Arad. “She’s a real chameleon with her looks, acting styles and athletic ability. That was exactly what we were looking for in Elektra.” Garner found much to work with in Elektra, not the least of which was the character’s martial abilities. The actress notes with a smile that her work in Alias put her in a “kind of combat mode,” which drew her to Daredevil. “And I really wanted to fight Ben Affleck,” she jokes.

Heart

In addition to the film’s non-stop action – and the chance to spar with her co-star – Garner appreciated Daredevil’s romantic and emotional elements, as well as the duality of the character. “There’s a heart and emotional center to this movie that everything comes out of,” she says. “Elektra is both good and evil at the same time. She’s a very dark person by nature, but she can also appear very optimistic. She’s very fierce and much more aggressive than anyone I’ve played before. Elektra goes looking for a fight instead of just reacting to the situation around her. She’s a strong, confident and sexy woman who is not afraid to use her sex to throw people off guard.”

The love story between Matt and Elektra endures is one of the most complicated storylines in comic book history, and is central to the film. Their respective quests to find meaning in their lives and their struggles with their respective dark sides brings them together, in ways more traditional bonds could never. “Matt and Elektra couldn’t be a more unlikely couple,” says Avi Arad. “Elektra was brought up in a privileged world. She had everything that drives men away. And here she meets this blind guy from the other side of the tracks – Daredevil’s protectorate: Hell’s Kitchen. Ultimately, their romance heads towards tragedy, because she wants to kill Daredevil, not realising of course that he is Matt Murdock, the man she has fallen in love with.”

Elektra finds her life forever changed by Bullseye, the assassin with perfect aim who has targeted Elektra’s father as his next victim. Bullseye’s signature weapons are metal throwing stars, or shuriken, but he is equally deadly with any object – be it a pencil, playing card or paper clip. They all become lethal weapons in the skilled hands of the man who could be the world’s greatest assassin.

Farrell embraced the character, bringing to it a mischievous and punk rock swagger. He explains that there wasn’t a lot of preparation he could do for the role. “Bullseye’s not constricted by the rules of reality,” he notes. “It was so much fun for me to play Bullseye because I was able to check subtlety at the door. I could be as camp and over the top as possible. I’ve never done anything like it.”

The Opposition

“Bullseye’s tools of the trade are basically anything that’s in the room at any given time,” Farrell says. “He’s a master with his hands, whether it’s a pen or a paper clip or a beer mat, he can kill you from forty yards by just throwing it your way. He also has a big, long, reptilian coat that spreads out like a parachute that he uses as a weapon, but more for defending.” For the flamboyant physical demands of the role, Farrell practiced his magician’s sleight-of-hand technique as well as completing martial arts and fighting training. Bullseye’s latest employer is Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin, a self-made millionaire whose criminal empire envelops Daredevil. Using his immense size and strength, Kingpin reached the pinnacle of his chosen profession by relying on just one person: himself. He rules the East Coast underworld with an iron hand and zero tolerance for failure.

Thanks to years of training and discipline, the Kingpin is an extraordinary hand-to-hand combatant. These fighting skills, coupled with an unusual agility for a man his size are more than a match for Daredevil. The comics’ Kingpin stands 6 feet, 7 inches and weighs 450 pounds, and while 6’ 5”, 340 lb. Michael Clarke Duncan doesn’t quite measure up in size to his extra large comics counterpart; the filmmakers were thrilled to have the Academy Award nominee aboard. “I was adamant that we get the best actor for the role” says Mark Steven Johnson. “Michael really made the character come alive.”

With Kingpin, Bullseye and Elektra all making life very difficult for Daredevil, it’s left to Matt’s best friend and partner at the law office of Murdock & Nelson, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, to provide many of the film’s lighter moments. Though a trusted ally, Foggy is unaware of Matt’s secret identity. Their friendship provides Matt with a much-needed solid foundation, as well as some much-needed humor.

Jon Favreau, star of such notable indie films as Swingers and Made felt a sense of responsibility in portraying a character that multitudes of comics fans had grown up with. “You try and capture the spirit of the comics character, but by the same token, you have to bring life and yourself to it,” notes the actor. “Comic book characters tend to be very one-dimensional, so when you bring it to the screen you have to breathe life into it.” Favreau and Affleck are part of the same generation of actors and filmmakers who burst onto the scene through independent films, and they share a common frame of reference and sensibilities. “I think in casting Ben and me, you capture an aspect of the relationship that reflects what’s in the comic book, but with a greater dimension to it,” Favreau notes. “Ben and I share a common sense of humor, so I think the chemistry on screen reflects that because we’re having a lot of fun together.”

Joe Pantoliano, the acclaimed character actor who recently starred on TVs The Sopranos plays another important character in the life of Daredevil: Ben Urich, a dogged reporter with the New York Post. The film finds him on a mission to uncover the identity of the infamous Kingpin, which leads him to an even bigger story: the real identity of Daredevil.

Secret Identity

Pantoliano says that his character is “…a reporter who digs into the truth and gleans out the lies.” As Urich gets closer to the truth he becomes a danger to the principal characters. “Kingpin doesn’t want Urich to discover who he is,” says Pantoliano, “and certainly Daredevil doesn’t want Urich to discover his identity, though he sure leaves a lot of clues. Urich realizes that what Daredevil is doing is for the people, for the underprivileged of the area, and he appreciates it. In the end Urich realises that the story he’s seeking may end up hurting some people, so he faces a moral dilemma.”

The film also features Golden Globe-nominated actor David Keith as Jack ‘The Devil’ Murdock, Matt’s father, a down-on-his-luck prizefighter who makes ends meet working as an enforcer for a local hoodlum. “What happens to my character really shapes Matt Murdock’s life,” Keith says. “It’s what drives him to become a lawyer and the vigilante known as Daredevil. It’s the anger from having his father killed for being a good guy.”

Martial Arts

The world’s top martial arts choreographers, action specialists and trainers came together on Daredevil to devise and execute some of the most impressive action set pieces ever put on celluloid. Three months prior to filming, Ben Affleck began a regimen of fight and fitness training to prepare for the role of Daredevil. Working under stunt coordinator Jeff Imada and veteran British fight trainer Dave Lea, Affleck trained in a variety of fighting styles, every day before and during production. “It was a new training regimen for Ben,” Lea says. “I started with stretching and then hand-drills, stick-drills and kicking. Then we devised a combination of street fighting, jailhouse rock, hand fighting, various Kung Fu styles, and boxing styles. For Daredevil, every fight is different. He uses what he needs to use at the time, and he takes a hit as often as he gives one. Daredevil can be fluid and graceful, or just plain down and dirty.”

Blind actor and personality Tom Sullivan, whose inspirational life story provided the basis for the television movie If You Could See What I Hear, served as a sight consultant to both Ben Affleck and Scott Terra (who plays the young Matt Murdock.) “My job was to teach Ben to be the best blind person on Earth,” Sullivan says. Sullivan worked closely with Affleck and director Mark Steven Johnson to carefully find a balance between Matt Murdock as a lawyer and Matt as Daredevil. “We tried to set up a situation where Matt always has the capacity to be Daredevil, only he has to hide that from the world at large. As Matt, he has to remember to be ‘more blind’ than he is.” Sullivan, a lifelong athlete who won the U.S. Nationals as a wrestler, also worked closely with Affleck and his trainer in the techniques of close quarter combat.

Renowned martial arts specialist Cheung Yan Yuen choreographed several of the film’s major action set pieces. A film legend in his native Hong Kong best known for his work on the feature film Charlie’s Angels, Yuen hails from a dynasty of martial arts experts. His brother, Wo-Ping Yuen, was the action choreographer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix.”

Yuen admits he initially had reservations about Affleck, Garner, and Farrell’s ability to perform the complex martial arts scenes he was creating. “I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with their skill,” he says. Affleck, Garner and Farrell performed the majority of their own stunts in the film. The film’s car and motorcycle chases and shootouts fell under the purview of stunt coordinator Jeff Imada, a veteran stuntman and stunt coordinator who has lent his talents to nearly 100 films, including Blade, and Blade Runner.

Realism

With all this elaborate martial arts choreography and acrobatics, the filmmakers were determined to keep all the action grounded in reality. Matt and Elektra are human beings, not superheroes, and their athletic skills had to be believable. “We tried to make sure that gravity applies to all of our characters,” says Gary Foster. “Daredevil has a more brutal, physical style than some of his comic book counterparts. Daredevil is a guy that if he were to jump off a building, he’d hit three fire escapes to slow himself down.”

Before cameras could capture the action, production designer Barry Chusid and his team of set designers, concept illustrators, set decorators and storyboard artists had to create Daredevil’s physical world. In designing the sets, Chusid had to consider the character’s blindness, the vibrant colors of the costumes. ‘Hell's Kitchen’ – roughly the Westside area in mid-town Manhattan situated between 34th and 59th Streets, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River - is Matt Murdock’s home and place of employment. Though the Hell’s Kitchen of today is a relatively safe, stylish neighborhood and home to artists, celebrities and New York’s working middle class, its incarnation - in both the Daredevil comics and here in the film - reflects a time and conditions that gave the area its infamous moniker.

Hell’s Kitchen Living

Matt Murdock’s apartment was constructed on the fifth floor of an historic downtown Los Angeles building in the jewelry district. The apartment has a secret room and machine shop where Murdock constructs his signature billy-club weapon and crimson costume. The apartment also features a sleep chamber, a lidded water flotation tank where he finds respite from the hyper-amplified world that surrounds him.

A giant stone bas-relief of angels and devils intertwined in battle, appears on a wall at the entrance to Matt Murdock’s apartment – a physical rendering of the ongoing inner struggle between Matt’s good and evil sides. Chusid also had everything in his home labeled in Braille, from Matt’s stainless steel clothing tags to his kitchen cupboards. Some of Chusid’s designs are closely linked to the work of visual effects supervisor Rich Thorne, whose team 'built' a portion of Daredevil’s world in the computer. Much of the visual effects department’s work centered on Daredevil’s unique hyper-sensory ‘shadow-world’, which works somewhat like sonar, taking it a step further. Like sonar, Daredevil’s hyper-acute hearing defines shapes by the way sound waves bounce off of them. But his abilities go far beyond conventional sonar – details of shapes are more ‘visible’ to Daredevil than they are to our naked eye. To render this realistic and three-dimensional shadow world, sound waves are shown and defined by shadow, not shot by light.

Visual Effects

The visual effects work in tandem with Daredevil’s intricate and dynamic sound effects mix, which is designed to immerse audiences in Daredevil’s shadowy/ hyper-acute soundspace. The filmmakers’ goal was to have moviegoers experience the same sensations as the crimson-clad hero. The film’s sound design and re-mixing team focused on two fight scenes: the climactic set piece situated in a cavernous cathedral, and a breathlessly paced battle set in Josie’s Bar, a locale familiar to every Daredevil comics fan. In a key cathedral sequence the action plays out around and on a giant pipe organ, which becomes a weapon in its own right. “That was an ideal environment for playing with sound,” notes sound designer Steve Boeddeker. “It allowed us to play with space and time, as well as sound.” The bar sequence showcases Daredevil’s powerful sensory abilities, which he employs to fight like no person with sight ever could. He literally can sense something before it happens – like the loading of a gun – even in the midst of a sometimes overwhelming cacophony.

Three-time Academy Award-winning costume designer James Acheson (The Last Emperor, Dangerous Liaisons, Restoration) joined Daredevil after working on last year’s major comic book adaptation Spider-Man. Acheson, along with associate costume designer Lisa Tomczeszyn, led a 40-person department. “After working with Jim on the Spider-Man movie, I brought him to Regency and Fox for Daredevil,” says Arad. “Jim is an immensely talented designer who has a unique point of view on these characters.”

Purists

Purists might be a little dismayed to see the Man Without Fear getting something of a makeover – losing the matt appearance of his crimson costume, for a slightly more rigid, glossier affair. In coming up with their Daredevil designs, Acheson and Tomczeszyn considered and rejected the decades-old, spandex-clad comics superhero template, which resembles the leotard tights of ballet dancers or circus performers. “We didn’t want to do a spandex costume,’” says Gary Foster. “We wanted this to be form following function, and to make sure that the suit had some protective value; Daredevil is mortal and he needs that protection.”

Designing and creating the Daredevil suit took nearly eight months. Its look merges comics tradition with contemporary sensibilities and practicality. The separate jacket and pants have built-in chest and arm muscles that work as body armor; the deep red color is able to go to black when in shadow, and the mask has a sculpted expression with custom tinted dark red lenses. Daredevil’s holster belt, which carries his signature billy club, is similar in design to a western gun belt but was manufactured in Kevlar webbing, leather and military fastenings. The boots are an aerodynamic version of a motocross boot complete with buckles.

Poetry

Tomczeszyn notes that comic book heroes have a visual poetry that make each of them unique, whether it is a cape, a symbol, or weapon. “We wanted to retain the resonance of that ‘visual signature’ and at the same time create a costume that felt more like modern street clothes,” she explains.

For sexy, stylish femme fatale Elektra, the filmmakers wanted a European designer chic sensibility as well as careless elegance. Her costumes also had to reflect the discipline of a woman trained in martial arts. “Jim Acheson has done an incredible job of making Elektra’s costumes as cool as possible,” says Jennifer Garner. “All of our superhero looks have a real hip element to them and are not your average man – or woman – in tights. Mine is no exception to that.” While Daredevil and Elektra comics fans know the character from her signature long, red sash, the filmmakers wanted a more functional, though equally sexy look. Elektra’s “assassin” costume is made of a material known as pleather, which is stretch vinyl embossed to have the texture of leather. She wears black to signify her state of mourning for her murdered father. Embroidered on Elektra’s costume are Japanese characters signifying Justice, Victory and Strength. Her bodice has built-in sheaths in which to carry her sais.

Filming Daredevil was an intense, challenging and rewarding experience that had special meaning for its director and star. Mark Steven Johnson, whose boyhood was marked by the Daredevil comics, saw a longtime dream – directing a feature film based on the character – become a reality. Ben Affleck has been drawn to the character since age twelve and, like Johnson, seemed destined to participate in the movie. “Daredevil always felt more grown up and more real to me than other comics characters,” Affleck says. “It’s a darkly romantic and mythic story. And it was something that I’ve always remembered and always wanted to do.”

Daredevil remained a popular comic book throughout the 1960s and 1970s. But when Frank Miller took the reins of the comic in 1980, Daredevil became one of Marvel’s most important and best-selling comics. Miller imbued the characters with a dark, gritty and realistic tone new to the comics world. Over the next few years Miller introduced important characters into the Daredevil universe, such as Elektra, Matt’s love interest and future adversary who features in the film.

Daredevil writer/director Mark Steven Johnson cites Miller’s Daredevil work from the early 1980s as a key inspiration for the film. In the introduction to Daredevil: The Man without Fear, a graphic novel that celebrated Daredevil’s thirtieth anniversary, Miller noted some of the complex personal traits that make Daredevil a compelling character. “He’s got all the makings of a villain. He’s a natural born rascal, a mischief-maker, and a scrapper. He’s a liar, who wears a mask to betray the solemn oath he made his father a thousand times. He’s a dangerous adept, gifted with a nearly superhuman talent for violence. He’s a loner, a sinner, a lawyer who breaks the law. But Matt Murdock is no villain, and no victim. There’s something strong inside him, passed from unknown mother and doomed father to son. Something tested by tragedy. Tempered by conscience. Honed by discipline. Something that holds back the bloodthirsty beast within and forces it to serve the cause of justice. Most of the time, anyway.”

Man Without Faith?

In 1998, Kevin Smith, the renowned writer/director of Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back – a comic book aficionado – wrote another volume of Daredevil stories. Emphasizing themes of religion and morality, Smith’s mission was to present “a Daredevil you’ve never seen before: a hero who is about to learn that a man without fear is a man without faith … and a man without faith is easily unmade.”

Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, Daredevil is produced by Arnon Milchan, Gary Foster and Avi Arad. Original creators Stan Lee and Bernie Williams are the executive producers. Apart from his most famous creations - Spider Man and Daredevil - Stan Lee also created The Avengers, The Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange, among many others. Lee has exerted more influence over the comic book industry than anyone in history. He created or co-created 90% of Marvel's recognized characters, which have been successfully licensed and marketed since 1965. The numbers are staggering – more than two billion of his comic books have been published in 75 countries and in 25 languages. In Europe alone, Lee's name appears on over 35 million comics annually.

In 1981 Lee transformed his Spider-Man and Hulk creations into Saturday morning and syndicated television cartoons. When Marvel Comics and Marvel Productions were acquired by New World Entertainment in 1986, Lee’s horizons expanded even further, giving him the opportunity to become more involved in the creation and development of filmed projects for both the big and small screen. He supervised such diverse animated series as X-Men Spider-Man and The Hulk. To date, his characters have populated over 24 separate television series, all of which continue in syndication around the world.

Super Cinema

Recent hit movies based on Marvel characters include Spider-Man, X-Men, Blade and Blade 2 X2 and The Hulk. In addition, The Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, The Mighty Thor and The Silver Surfer are all currently in development for motion pictures and TV series.

Daredevil is out now on double-disc DVD, as a special edition (longer and somewhat darker in tone) Directors' Cut and as part of a double pack with the Elektra movie.

More information available in DVD / Home Video, Books