 20th Century Fox first acquired the rights to Daredevil from Marvel  in 1997. Chris Columbus was initially attached to direct. The  following year Marvel was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy so  Fox let the option slide. Disney then expressed an interest in the  character, but this ultimately came to nothing. Mark Steven Johnson  realized his lifes ambition in 1999 when Marvel assigned the rights  to Sony and he was hired to write the screenplay. However, the  following year, Sony put the project in turnaround. It was picked up  by New Regency with Fox distributing, but Johnson found himself  having to (successfully) re