Doctor Strange: Who Will Direct?; Mads Mikkelsen Casting Noise

Earlier this week Heat Vision reported that Marvel is reportedly considering four filmmakers to call action on  their long gestating Doctor Strange movie.

They are:

Jonathan Levine, the filmmaker behind the cancer dramedy "50/50" and zombie rom-com "Warm Bodies".  Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel who directed the Oscar-nominated "A Royal Affair" and wrote the adapted screenplay for the original 2009 Swedish version of  "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" . Relative newcomer  Dean Israelite, a short filmmaker who recently directed his first feature - the found footage time-travel movie "Welcome to Yesterday" due later this year. Finally there's Mark Andrews, a co-writer and co-director of Pixar's "Brave" who also worked on the script for "John Carter" and wrote for TV series like "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Samurai Jack".

The four men have reportedly either met or are about to meet with Marvel execs for the job .

"Kung Fu Panda" scribes Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger are also said to be poised to pen the latest screenplay draft with whomever is hired as director. Back in January 2012, Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer-the writing duo behind the recent remake of Conan the Barbarian had their work seemingly approved by the studio

Now part of the studio's phase three or four plans--Created in 1963 for the comics--Doctor Strange tells the story of an arrogant surgeon who is injured in a car accident and goes on to become the Sorcerer Supreme of the universe. Using his magical powers Strange protects the earth from attacks from other realms.

Actor/writer Justin Theroux ("Mulholland Drive," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle"), Viggo Mortensen and Joel Edgerton were mentioned for the lead as well. "Inception" and "The Dark Knight Rises" star Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the last actor in the mix before Johnny Depp's was mentioned

Depp is said to have had a meeting "to discuss taking on the role of Dr. Strange." His strong ties to Disney, Marvel's owners, makes him an ideal candidate

On the heels of the director potentials Bleeding Cool reports that: "According to one pretty solid Marvel-adjacent source, Mads Mikkelsen apparently is, or has been, somewhere in the mix for the film's early casting discussions."

 The report goes on to say: "I'm still trying to find another source on that, or to clarify which part it would be, and whether or not Mikkelsen might have already passed or been passed over. And there were other names mentioned at the same time, that I'm also still investigating."

This has led to speculation that Mikkelsen may instead be up for the role of Strange's arch-nemesis, the evil Baron Karl Mordo