Marvel has started working on plans to make neurosurgeon-turned-super-sorcerer Doctor Strange into their next big movie franchise.
Thomas Donnell and Joshua Oppenheimer ( Conan the Barbarian ) have handed in a script, and Marvel are so excited by what they've read they've already started shortlisting directors.
After a flurry of successful films released by Marvel in recent months, not least Captain America, many will be questioning this attempt to bring out one of their rather more obscure characters.
For those who’ve never heard of Doctor Strange (he's only the big daddy of the Marvel Universe) here’s a selection of his many, many talents…
“Doctor Strange can use magic to achieve virtually any effect he desires, such as telepathy, energy blasts, teleportation, astral projection, the creation of materials, creating planet-wide protective shields, restoring himself from bodily destruction, or resurrecting the dead.
"Strange is capable of stopping and reversing time on a planetary scale, sealing black holes, restoring universes, absorbing power enough to unconsciously destroy any surrounding galaxies, growing to the size of and merging with universal concepts, and helped to channel the mass of the entire Marvel Universe.”
So he’s essentially a superhero Swiss army knife then...