Over at Pajiba, they're very concerned that we're getting another movie about Spider-Man instead of a movie about a female superhero. Now, it's not rocket science why that's the case—seriously, look at the list they've put together and explain to me how you convince a studio to spend $100 million on a character named Echo whose only real qualification seems to be that she checks off a couple of identity politics boxes rather than $100 million on a superhero that the whole world knows—but I understand the impulse. The Marvel Universe has a giant stable of heroes to choose from and the world doesn't really need another Spider-Man origin story.
You know what the world does need? A Silver Sable movie.
Who is Silver Sable? I'm glad you asked! Wikipedia?
Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova) is a fictional antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with Spider-Man. She is a mercenary, hunter of war criminals, the leader of the Wild Pack, and CEO of Silver Sable International. Although sometimes a legitimate mercenary, her methods and motives have sometimes brought her into conflict with other superheroes. Occasionally, she is seen as an ally of Spider-Man and other heroes.
An anti-heroine proficient in gunplay with ready-made, easily hatable villains. I can't imagine that formula would work.
What does Silver Sable look like?
So look. I'm no fancy big city movie producer. I'm just a simple comic book reader who also happens to watch a lot of movies. However, I can't imagine a pitch much simpler than this one:
It's a movie about an attractive, female mercenary who hunts Nazis around the globe. She is taking them out not only because they are Nazis and Nazis always deserve to die, but also because Nazis killed her father—himself a Nazi hunter—right in front of her. We can have them kill her mother too, just for funsies. Double the revenge!
If you don't think this is a solid premise for a movie, think back to X-Men: First Class. What was the best part of that flick? That's right: Magneto hunting middle-aged Nazis in his effort to track down the guy who killed his family in front of him. Honestly, a Silver Sable/Fassbender Magneto team up movie would be the highest grossing movie ever made. It would make Citizen Kane look like Plan 9 from Outer Space. But I'm not sure exactly what the rights issues are there, so it'll probably never happen.
As a bonus, you could make this movie for cheap. I bet it would come in at under $50 million: bullets and explosions are cheap. Of course, I'm willing to pay whatever it would take if we could somehow entice Jennifer Lawrence into taking the lead role. At $20M she'd be a steal. And Hunger Games has shown she can play a role that demands some physicality. Visually, I think she'd be a good fit:
Anyway. A Silver Sable movie would be a million times more entertaining than yet another Spider-Man movie. That character's onscreen adventures peaked with Sam Raimi; it's been all downhill since Spider-Man 2's Doc Ock "Horror Hospital" Sequence.
After Marvel hires me to write this bad boy, I'll fill you in on my next brilliant idea: A Damage Control series for Netflix. If they can make Ant-Man work...