CATE SHORTLAND CONFIRMED AS MCU TENTPOLE 'BLACK WIDOW' DIRECTOR

Cate Shortland has been welcomed into the studio franchise fold with trade paper The Hollywood Reporter breaking the news that the Australian director will helm Black Widow.

The stand-alone adventure of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s heroine assassin will see Scarlett Johansson reprise the role of ex-Russian agent Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. To date, she has featured as a supporting player in six MCU films.

Hailing from the New South wales country town of Temora, Shortland’s path to the mega-budget tentpole arena comes via the arthouse sector. A graduate of the prestigious Australian Film Television and Radio School, she helmed a series of well-received shorts (Pentuphouse, 1998; Flowergirl, 1999; Joy, 2000) and episodic television before her 2004 feature debut, Somersault.

A frank coming-of-age drama, Somersault launched the careers of stars Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington during a festival run that yielded 14 Australian Film Institute awards and earning Shortland an Un Certain Regard nomination at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. She followed its success with the German/Australian co-production Lore (2012) and the Teresa Palmer hostage drama, The Berlin Syndrome (2017).

A Black Widow film has been whispered about within the Marvel Films empire for several years. In 2014, MCU overseer Kevin Feige said the project was being developed, a position he restated in 2016. The attachment of rookie scribe Jac Schaeffer (TiMER, 2009; Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, 2017; The Shower, due 2019; pictured, right) in January has fast-tracked the project.

Shortland was only confirmed for the directing job after Marvel had allegedly met with dozens of directors, including Deniz Gamze Erguven (Mustang, 2015), Chloe Zhao (The Rider, 2017), Amma Asante (Belle, 2013; A United Kingdom, 2016) Maggie Betts (Novitiate, 2017), Melanie Laurent (Galveston, 2018) and Angela Robinson (Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, 2017).

When released, Black Widow will become the second MCU production to be directed by a woman. Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larsen and due March 8 2019, has Anna Boden behind the camera, co-directing with Ryan Fleck.

Read the 2012 SCREEN-SPACE Interview with Cate Shortland discussing the release of LORE.