Jac Schaeffer is penning a script for the Scarlett Johansson film.


A solo film starring Black Widow, a project Marvel fans have been wanting for years, is taking a step forward.


Screenwriter Jac Schaeffer has been set to pen a script for the project, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The film, which would star Scarlett Johansson as the Marvel hero, is in early development.


Schaeffer wrote the script for the upcoming Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake Nasty Woman starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson, and Hathaway is also attached to star in a film from Schaeffer's Black List alien invasion script The Shower. Schaeffer also wrote and directed the 2009 romantic sci-fi movie TiMER.


Johansson first played Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) in 2010's Iron Man 2 and has reprised the role in a number of films, including the Avengers movies and most recently in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. She is set to appear in Avengers: Infinity War in May.


Both Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and Johansson have long said they wanted to make a stand-alone movie centering on the character, a Russian spy-turned-superhero. Marvel will release its first female-toplined movie, Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, in 2019. Ironically, the Black Widow news comes just days after the trailer for Jennifer Lawrence's Russian spy drama Red Sparrow (which has nothing to do with Marvel), had people online joking that it seemed like a Black Widow origin story.


Schaeffer is repped by Writ Large and Verve Talent and Literary Agency.