Filmmaker Mohamed Diab Landed Marvel's Moon Night By Writing A 200-Page Pitch

Like many jobs, getting the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to helm a Marvel production can be a rigorous interview process. Unlike many jobs, pitching hundreds of pages worth of material to prove that you know your stuff can be the key to success. As he tells it, that's how filmmaker Mohamed Diab apparently became the last man standing when it came to getting the highly sought-after "Moon Knight" gig. Marvel's upcoming Disney+ series about the fan-favorite (and oftentimes violent) antihero would present a stark challenge to many a filmmaker, but for Diab this project represents a new beginning and a chance to prove himself on a much larger platform than ever before.

Mohamed Diab has a lot on his plate right now. He might be right in the middle of production for "Moon Knight," but he's currently in Venice for the world premiere of his new film "Amira." The Egyptian writer/director is responsible for the script of one of Egypt's highest-grossing films ever with "The Island" in 2007, made his directing debut with "Cairo 678" in 2010, and debuting "Clash" six years later at Cannes Film Festival. In other words, he's precisely the kind of up-and-coming talent that Marvel has made increasingly concerted efforts to search out and recruit for their big-budget machine.

"Moon Knight" will be his first foray into making an English language production as well as his Hollywood debut, so one would think that the pressure would be sky-high. As he puts it, "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." According to a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, it's a challenge that Diab threw himself into right from the start of the pitching process — one that involved no less than 200 pages of pitching material.

"Honestly, it was a great pitch. The moment we finished it I told [wife and writer/producer Sarah Gohar] that if we didn't get this job, something was wrong."

Of course, he did end up getting it in very convincing fashion. Describing his first phone call from Marvel as "out of the blue," Diab and Gohar had just moved to the United States and had been struggling mightily to find a consistent means of work before they were asked to apply for "Moon Knight." Looking back, Diab has nothing but kind words to say about his firsthand experience with the studio.

"It's been such a great experience — I'm learning a lot. 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."

For those who want a more complete picture of Diab as a filmmaker and as a human being, the rest of the profile is worth looking into. Mohamed Diab is about to become far more well-known in the West and, hopefully, will see greater opportunities to continue to tell his unique stories. "Moon Knight" will come to Disney+ in 2022.