Draft:Black Cat (upcoming film)

Black Cat is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be a film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU).

Black Cat was first to be included in a film with the unproduced Spider-Man 4, before being introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). Development on a female superhero spin-off from the Spider-Man film franchise first began in October 2014; by March 2017, it was set to feature Black Cat and Silver Sable. Gina Prince-Bythewood joined the team-up project—titled Silver & Black—as director, but it was canceled in August 2018 and reworked into individual spin-off films. Black Cat is intended to be the first of these.

Cast

 * Felicia Hardy / Black Cat: "an acrobatic cat burglar".

Development
It was reported in December 2009 that the Marvel Comics character Felicia Hardy would be introduced in Spider-Man 4, with Anne Hathaway being looked at to play the role. Julia Stiles, Rachel McAdams, and Romola Garai were also considered. Director Sam Raimi was believed to be taking the character in a different direction from the comics, having her become a supervillain named "Vulturess", to partner with John Malkovich as the Vulture, rather than the cat burglar known as Black Cat. The next month, Sony announced that the Spider-Man franchise would be rebooted after Raimi decided to no longer pursue direct sequels to Spider-Man 3 (2007). In January 2013, Felicity Jones was in talks to join the second film in the reboot series, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), as Hardy. She does not take on the Black Cat persona in the film.

In December 2013, Sony revealed plans to use The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to establish their own expanded universe based on the Marvel properties the studio had the film rights to. Development on a female superhero spin-off set in the expanded universe began with Lisa Joy writing the screenplay. In January 2015, Jones expressed interest in reprising her role of Hardy and exploring the Black Cat side of the character, but stated that there were no plans for her to do so. The film was believed to have been "scrapped" by November 2015, but re-entered development as a film starring both Silver Sable and Black Cat in March 2017 when Sony revived plans for a shared universe, known as Sony's Spider-Man Universe. The film was officially titled Silver & Black, and Gina Prince-Bythewood signed on to direct. Production on the film was indefinitely delayed in February 2018 as Prince-Bythewood was not happy with the script, and the film was officially canceled in August 2018.

After canceling Silver & Black, Sony intended to rework it as two separate solo films focusing on each of the title characters beginning with Black Cat. Though a final decision had not been made at the time, Prince-Bythewood was not expected to direct either of the new films, though she would remain involved as a producer. Sony was adamant at the time of the announcement that Prince-Bythewood would be replaced with another female director. On the decision to give Black Cat her own film, Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch explained that they believed she "is enough of her own character with a great backstory and a canon of material to draw from to justify her own film."