Industry site The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Iron Man 3 director Shane Black is close to signing up to a project close to his heart - a reworking of pulp action hero Doc Savage.
The character of Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze, first appeared in the pulp paperbacks and radio serials of the 1930s and 1940s where the multi-tasking hero took on major bad-guys with an almost limitless range of how own skills. He was a sharp-minded scientist, inventor. explorer and master of disguise. A staple of those early radio serials, there were plans to bring him to the screen in 1967 with Chuck Conners in the title role, but rights issues prevented it moving forward. He finally made his way onto the big-screen, played by ex-Tarzan Ron Ely in the cult 1975 movie - a project where El also helped out managing second-unit fight sequences. It remains a cult favourite to this day, though initial response to the movie was luke-warm, partly attributed to problems with the funding during production and the 'camper' tone of the piece that seemed more in tune with the Adam West era of Batman.
There were talks, around 1999, that Frank Darabont and Arnold Schwarzenegger might collabortae on a version of the character, but when Arnold decided to pursue a political career - ultimately becoming Governor of California - the efforts stalled.
With Black receiving plaudits for Iron Man 3, there's every indication that Sony want to get behind Doc Savage as a potentially lucrative, ongoing new franchise.
In a statement Sony’s president of production Hannah Minghella said that: "We couldn't be more excited to be building a franchise from the ground up with Shane and this team. Shane and Neal (H. Moritz, producer) have a fantastic understanding of the character and a great take on the material and we can't wait to get this production up and running.”
There's no news on casting, but one suspects that the film will remain a period-set action movie, including all the original elements that made the character popular in the early part of the Twentieth Century...
