C. Robert Cargill turns to the arcane as he's announced as the secret scripter on Doctor Strange. Credit: Photo by Jessica Cargill

C. Robert Cargill turns to the arcane as he’s announced as the secret scripter on Doctor Strange. Credit: Photo by Jessica Cargill

No secret can be hidden forever from the probing Eye of Agamatto – or from Twitter. Yesterday, local author C. Robert Cargill confirmed that he has actually spent the last year working on the script for the upcoming adaptation of Marvel’s supernatural adventure series Doctor Strange.

Directed by Scott Derrickson, who co-wrote 2012 shocker Sinister with Cargill, the latest addition to Marvel’s ever-expanding universe centers on surgeon-turned-sorceror supreme Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). The cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer), Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal), Michael Stuhlbarg (Boardwalk Empire), and cult action star Scott Adkins (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning).

There were a few eyes raised locally when Cargill announced he was headed to London, just coincidentally as Derrickson and crew began shooting on-set at Longcross Studios (previously used by Marvel for Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor 2: The Dark World). His tweet yesterday confirms suspicions that it wasn’t just the Vishanti watching over production.

If that wasn’t proof enough. Marvel co-president and producer Louis D’Esposito sent photographic evidence.

Cargill’s name will now be printed alongside fellow credited scripters Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (who worked together on Saharah, A Sound of Thunder, and the reboot of Conan the Barbarian), and Jon Spaihts (Prometheus), who previously worked on the script, and the comics pioneer Steve Ditko, who created the original character.

The project, scheduled to be released Nov. 4, 2016, seems like a natural fit for Cargill. After becoming a household name among film buffs under the pseudonym Massawyrm at Ain’t It Cool News, he and Derrickson had a break-out success with Sinister. They also have scripts for game-to-cinema conversion Deus Ex and a big-screen adaptation of The Outer Limits episode “Demon With a Glass Hand,” originally authored by Harlan Ellison.

Additionally, he’s created a whole fantasy world of his own with his duo of Austin-set magical adventures, Dreams and Shadows and Queen of the Dark Things. Cargill has promised that he will start work on the third part of the trilogy, The Coyote Laughs Last, in 2016.

This article appears in December 11 • 2015.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.