Matt Murdock TV show treatment

compound

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You already know the beginning: Hell's Kitchen. Brave kid. Old lady rescued. Toxic chemicals spilled. Vision lost. Senses heightened. Father killed for throwing a rigged boxing match. Psyche scarred. Justice sought. No fear!

Here is where things get different:

Matt Murdock is 17, and ready to enroll in a Pre-Law undergraduate course at prestigious Empire State University. He has been reading news reports by hot-shot Bugle reporter Ben Urich, exposing dangerous levels of Stimulagen -- the chemical that granted Matt his powers -- in the city's water supply. Urich's reports links this menace with dubious activities in warehouses owned by Wilson Fisk, influential self-made businessman, and reputed mob underboss of Alexander Bont, the Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, feared throughout the neighborhood. However, pay-offs to cops and legal loopholes have prevented any charges from being filed against Fisk or Bont. Matt has made it his personal mission to bring the mob leaders to justice, driving him to study the legal system with an obsessive zeal, and earning himself a scholarship to ESU.

But college life itself presents all kinds of unexpected challenges for Matt.

At home in the Kitchen, his immediate neighbors -- indeed, his surrogate family -- regard him as a fortunate son, urging him to use his academic success to get out of the Kitchen once and for all, like so many of them wish to do.

Matt's childhood buddy, Turk, doesn't have the same kind of opportunity. He has secretly begun considering the offer of becoming a rookie enforcer for cocky local hooligan Pointdexter, who is seen as a rising star in the underworld. Nevertheless, Turk loyally sticks up for Matt, whenever the burly locals accuse him of being a social climber.

Matt's best pal and neighbor, Karen Page, wishes that her friend would spend less time caught up in his personal quest. In fact, she's beginning to think he's keeping secrets from her. Things get even more complicated when a temp agency assigns her to work as a clerk in the Bugle, inspiring her to investigate her evasive pal.

Meanwhile, at school, despite Matt's academic success, he is picked on and ostracized by his snobby peers. Among his few confidantes is the sympathetic Teacher's Assistant, who is none other than Richard Fisk -- the estranged son of Wilson Fisk. Richard claims to want no part of his father's budding criminal empire (alhough he shares his Dad's proclivity for living it up!)

Another friend is his bumbling, affable classmate, Foggy Nelson (who is sort of the Ron Weasley to Matt's Harry Potter, in this version).

Matt has also caught the attention of enigmatic, cool billionaire heiress Elektra Naitchios. But why exactly is she so interested in him?

Amidst the drama of home and school life, a conspiracy is taking shape. Bont has entered into a fragile alliance with the shadowy Japanese underworld group known as The Hand, who have their own sinister designs for Empire City. (This is a similar arrangement to Falcone's deal with the Legue of Shadows in Batman Begins.)

Matt finds himself drawn into this battle for control, when he befriends Stick, an eccentric black war veteran, now working as a janitor at ESU. Stick tells him about the upcoming threat of the Hand, and that Matt is desitned to save civilization itself, from its results. Skeptical at first, Matt realizes from Stick's heartbeat that he is not lying. Matt agrees to be trained in the ways of a sect known as the Chaste.

As the series unfolds, we see Matt dealing with the various dualities in his life: the dimly-lit comfort of the Kitchen vs. the flourescent misery of ESU; his wavering faith in the legal system vs. the apparent effectiveness of vigilantes like The Punisher and The Blood Rose; his staunch Catholic upbringing vs. his 'sinful' impulses, and so forth.
 
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Each episode furthers the larger plotlines, as Matt gets closer to adapting the Daredevil persona, bringing Bont and Fisk to justice, and understanding the nature of the conflict between the Chaste and the Hand.

But there are also 'freak of the week' plots, in which Matt intervenes in situations caused by people affected by the Stimulagen in the water supply:

* "The Longest Day": Willie Day is a promising basketball player in all but one aspect: he's too short to qualify for the ESU varsity team. Cut from the line-up, he resigns himself to a future running his family's struggling water delivery business. But when he gets into a car accident, he is doused with Stimulagen-rich water, giving him freakish but extendable legs. Deranged by its effects, he seeks revenge against the coach and basketball team.

* "The Color Purple": Zeb Killgrave plays the role of The Purple Man, the zany mascot for a rival football team. He is desperate for the players' acceptance as a friend, and thus puts up with their frequent mistreatment. During a game at ESU, the team pulls a prank on Killgrave, by dunking his head into a toilet bowl, containing Stimulagen-rich water. The incident leaves his face and hair permanently colored violet, but also grants him a hypnotic gaze, which he uses to his sick advantage. (Too bad Matt Murdock can't see.)

* "Et Tu, Murdock?": Melvin Potter is an Ancient History major who gets kicked out of ESU for staging unlicensed fights between homeless bums, styled after Roman gladiator contests (complete with frat-boys watching in togas, and bikini-clad servant wenches). On the day of his appeal for readmission, he attempts to get rid of a hang-over by drinking water that unknowlingly contains high concentrations of Stimulagen, enhancing his strength, and prompting him to seek bloody revenge against the school board, using his collection of replica Roman weaponry.

* "Burning Down The House": Timid but intelligent Drama student Mary Walker appreciates theater, but doesn't have the skills or personality required to be an actress, leaving her as a perennial costume designer instead. When a suitor attempts to drown her in his bathtub, the Stimulagen in the water alters her brain chemistry, unleashing the man-hating exhibitionist side of her personality, calling herself 'Typhoid'. It also grants her the abilities needed to "set the stage on fire" -- literally!
 
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Ian would do a great job with this... If he could pass as 17 year old.

I'd be interested in watching this.
 
I really like the ideas you have and always thought Daredevil could make an awesome show if done correctly. Your off to a good start Not sure of those "freak of the week" episodes, sounds too much like the thing that makes Smallville unbearable to watch, also the water contaminations would leave a lot of people with powers, whats stop everyone in Hell's Kitchen getting powers after taking a shower. My suggestions would be to focus more on the Hand and Kingpin plots make a very long plot spanded across the series. You should also have Matt be a fighter at heart, like he has a lot of pent up rage, so he would perpously go to the darker corners of Hells Kitchen in a hoodie and sunglasses waiting for someone to start something, which would show how he got into being a vilgelante. I love how Stick is a janitor, but I dont think a prophecy would work, just he sees Matt as a good apprentice to take on the Hand.

I really like what you have, just dont make mistakes of other shpws like Smallvile, too many freak of the weeks and "OC" crap. Dont draw out him become Daredevil make it a gradual thing, him doing the hero thing in a simple disguise and building a reputation. Just do that and I think you have a hit
 
Thanx x 1 000 000 for all the praise, guys!

Random said:
the water contaminations would leave a lot of people with powers, whats stop everyone in Hell's Kitchen getting powers after taking a shower.
Luck. Chance. Probability. (Fate?) Well, I really introduced the idea of contaminations in the water system as an excuse to bring in some familiar faces from Daredevil's rogues gallery, and since quite a few of them have super-powers, I needed a convenient excuse that could also be linked to the Kingpin master-plot, hence the Stimulagen concept.

In any case, these are just meant to be infrequent "Easter Egg" episodes, in order to introduce a few of the traditional DD villains.

Random said:
My suggestions would be to focus more on the Hand and Kingpin plots make a very long plot spanded across the series.
As I mentioned, this would be the primary focus of the series.

In fact, I deliberately set it up so that it could play out across multiple seasons, e.g. mid-way through season 1, Elektra blinds Bont as revenge for killing her father (in a nod to the events in the first Echo arc, "Parts of a Whole"); by then end of season 1, Fisk is plotting to over-throw Bont as the Kingpin (similar to what Sammy Silke did in "Underboss"); this dovetails with the sub-plot about Karen Page becoming a heroin addict, and turning over the info she uncovers about Matt to Fisk, in season 2, to help support her fix. By season 2, Pointdexter would have developed enough of a reputation as a local young-gun, that Fisk will take him on as a contract killer, etc. So it's all very inter-connected.

Random said:
You should also have Matt be a fighter at heart, like he has a lot of pent up rage, so he would perpously go to the darker corners of Hells Kitchen in a hoodie and sunglasses waiting for someone to start something, which would show how he got into being a vilgelante.
Yup! Again, that's the plan. Sort of, "you can take the boy from the Kitchen, but you can't take the Kitchen out of the boy". Matt's a natural scrapper.

His black hoodie/shades combo from Miller's "Man Without Fear" story will definitely be his attire of choice, in these early years. No rush to have him take on the DD name just yet.

Random said:
I love how Stick is a janitor, but I dont think a prophecy would work, just he sees Matt as a good apprentice to take on the Hand.
You make a great point here, bro! You're absolutely right. One of the defining characteristics about Matt becoming Daredevil is that it was a choice; a conscikus decision that he made to take justice into his own hands. And it should remain that way; it can't foisted upon him by some contrived "chosen-one" pre-destiny. Stick tells him about the conflict between Chaste and Hand, and Matt willingly accepts the training, in the interest of protecting the city he loves. It feels more "real", that way, for lack of a better word.
 
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compound said:
Thanx x 1 000 000 for all the praise, guys!

Luck. Chance. Probability. (Fate?) Well, I really introduced the idea of contaminations in the water system as an excuse to bring in some familiar faces from Daredevil's rogues gallery, and since quite a few of them have super-powers, I needed a convenient excuse that could also be linked to the Kingpin master-plot, hence the Stimulagen concept.

In any case, these are just meant to be infrequent "Easter Egg" episodes, in order to introduce a few of the traditional DD villains.
Maybe with the water you should do something hidden that is revealed some point down the line, like its not just the water but in combination with something else, like a soda or some thing they come in contact with. Make it smooth so people dont realise until you tell them and the see it was their the whole time.

You might want to consider not give every villain a super power. Like PurpleMan being a psychologist who hypnotises people for the mob and he puts on purple make up... for some reason.

And I just now realised that this will never get on the air... which really pisses me off. You should try and write a piliot and get this show made, if you need help just ask, plenty of ideas floating around on this board
 

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