Like all Marvel Studios projects, Moon Knight will be entertaining, funny, and action-packed, but director Mohamed Diab promises it will also be very dramatic.
Diab spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, saying, "Definitely, when you see this you will not recognize that it’s me directing it. But I’m so proud of it. I always love to have a new challenge." The writer-director, who is executive producing the series and directing four of the six episodes, went on to discuss how the elements of his usual work will still appear alongside the MCU style.
"My movies are hard, serious and about big topics, and I feel strongly that Moon Knight is going to be like that — it’s going to be entertainment but also heavy," Diab said. "At the same time, we’re being so creative with the jokes and with the action. As I keep saying to my wife: I can’t believe I’m funny in another language!"
Diab, an Egyptian director, is soon leaving Budapest, Hungary, where the Marvel series is filming, to head to the Venice Film Festival for his upcoming release, Amira. He's had a prestigious career so far, but national pushback against his acclaimed 2016 film Clash, set during the 2013 Egyptian revolution, accelerated plans for Diab and his producing partner and wife, Sarah Goher, to relocate to the U.S. and pursue more Hollywood projects. The couple said every avenue they tried failed to pan out -- until a call from out of nowhere invited them to pitch on Moon Knight.
Diab and Goher crafted a 200-page pitch for the show, pinning all their hopes on the Marvel project. "Honestly, it was a great pitch," Diab said. "The moment we finished it I told Sarah that if we didn’t get this job, something was wrong."
The pair did land the job, however, and Diab said it's been amazing so far. "It’s been such a great experience — I’m learning a lot," he said. "I’m appreciating things more about my independent movies, and I’m appreciating things about the big machine. I can’t compare Marvel to anything else, but it’s a great machine. Those guys are geniuses."
Moon Knight, which stars Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke, has yet to receive a release date on Disney+, but it's expected to arrive sometime next year.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter