Spike Lee & Luke Cage Creator Reportedly Developing Nightwatch Movie

Spike Lee is reportedly set to direct the Spider-Man spinoff movie Nightwatch for Sony, based on a script that Cheo Hodari Coker is writing. The rumor that Sony was looking at Lee to helm a Nightwatch solo film first started making the rounds last September. That was also the first time there was any real discussion about a Nighwatch movie happening in the first place.


Sony is currently developing a slate of movies based on antiheroes and/or supporting characters from the Spider-Man comic books. The Tom Hardy-headlined Venom will be the first out of the gate this fall, and already has a teaser trailer to prove it. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Silver Sable and Black Cat film Silver & Black is the only other Spider-Man spinoff besides Venom that has an official release date at the moment. Now, just a few weeks after reports emerged claiming that Silver & Black‘s production has been indefinitely delayed (but not canceled), it seems that Nightwatch is picking up speed on its way down the pipeline.


That Hashtag Show is reporting that Lee has been formally attached to direct Nightwatch from a screenplay by Coker, rather than the project’s previously-reported writer Edward Ricourt (Now You See Me). The site also reports that Sony Executive Vice President Palak Patel is overseeing the film’s development, but does not specify if Coker is drawing from the earlier script draft penned by Ricourt or starting afresh with his own screenplay.


Marvel Comics introduced the Nighwatch property in the 1990s, after the titular character made their printed page debut in 1993’s Web of Spider-Man #97. The series follows sometime villain, sometime antihero Dr. Kevin Trench, a physician who witnesses a costumed superhero being killed in battle… only to discover that the man is a futuristic version of himself. Nightwatch’s supersuit includes a variety of bells and whistles that include a cape that responds to his subconscious thoughts, as well as technology that boosts his strength and endurance, and allows his costume to be self-repairing.


Coker made a name for himself when he launched Marvel’s Luke Cage on Netflix two years ago, and he has since moved on to cowrite the upcoming Creed 2. The writer/producer has shown a knack for smoothly mixing genre tropes and sociopolitical commentary, making the prospect of him teaming up with Lee on Nighwatch a promising one. Nightwatch itself is similarly an intriguing sci-fi addition to Sony’s growing Spider-Man spinoff collection, to go with the body horror driven Venom, buddy adventure Silver & Black, and supernatural horror flick Morbius the Living Vampire, among other projects.