DOC SAVAGE and The Fabulous Five are being brought to life for a cinematic adventure, courtesy of Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang).
According to AICN, Black is bringing writer Lester Dent’s famed Man of Bronze to life, writing and possibly directing the movie and Black says he fully intends to keep the adventurer in his proper time period, the 1930s.
While AICN initial report states that writers/producers Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci (STAR TREK, TRANSFORMERS) are set to produce, the good folks over at Collider says it AIN’T so. Apparently Ori Marmur and Neal Moritz (XXX, Stealth), who are also producing “The Green Hornet”, “Battle: Los Angeles”, and “Jack the Giant Killer” are, in fact Producing the film.
Black has been keeping a low profile for the past decade or so, aside from KISS KISS BANG BANG. He was most recently attached to direct a spy thriller called COLD WARRIOR.
News of this project is not a recent development, a Doc Savage project (or three) have been in and out of Development Hell quite a bit over the years, so it will be interesting to see if (and when) it’s actually up on the big-screen.
The character purportedly influenced many later famous heroes of film and print, from Batman and Superman (Savage trained himself beyond physical limits, and had an Arctic “Fortress of Solitude”) to Buckaroo Banzai (Doc was also a surgeon, inventor, scientist and musician). He generally traveled with a quintet of colleagues (specialists in various fields).
For those unfamiliar with Doc Savage, check out the following excerpt from wikipedia
Doc Savage’s real name was Clark Savage, Jr.. He was a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and, as revealed in The Devil Genghis, a musician. A team of scientists assembled by his father deliberately trained his mind and body to near-superhuman abilities almost from birth, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, a mastery of the martial arts, and vast knowledge of the sciences. Doc is also a master of disguise and an excellent imitator of voices. “He rights wrongs and punishes evildoers.” Dent described the hero as a mix of Sherlock Holmes’ deductive abilities, Tarzan’s outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy’s scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln’s goodness. Main writer Lester Dent described Doc Savage as manifesting “Christliness.” Doc’s character and world-view is displayed in his oath, which goes as follows:
Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.
Doc has appeared in about 200 novels between 1933 and 1949 (not to mention a handful in the 1990s), plus comics, a radio series, and a camp low-budget movie in 1975 titled Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, Directed by George Pal and Starring Ron Ely (see the featurette below) and most recently, we told you about DC Comics bringing him back in a crossover event with none other than The Dark Knight himself.
