Cool News
Orci & Kurtzman are producing DOC SAVAGE!!!
Hey folks, Harry here... with the latest gift from the Alamo's HIGHBALL. Sunday night may be the HIGHBALL's Grand Opening - but already it has delivered one helluva cool scoop. Last night, a friend was having her birthday party there - at a pair of bowling lanes. Yoko and I went down and it was to be an evening of friends, drinks, cake and bowling. When who should appear, but Shane Black. He's in town for another function entirely, but he came over to chat a bit with me. Somewhere, the Mighty Joe Hallenbeck was crying. When I asked him what he was working on, he shocked me with the revelation that he was going to be writing a script for DOC SAVAGE, which Orci & Kurtzman (those STAR TREK, EAGLE EYE, TRANSFORMERS guys) were producing. If you've been reading the site for the past 14 years - you know that I'm a Doc Savage freak. We've tracked the property as it has been developed and redeveloped and almost made many many times. Even now, AB King is typing up an email to ask me if I asked Shane Black if he was writing this to star Arnie. No AB, that never crossed my mind. However, I did inquire if they were modernizing the character. I asked this with dread in my belly, and Shane passed the test by saying the character can not be separated from the 30s. This is correct. Right now, he is preparing to write the script. He has decided that Doc needs to have his Fabulous Five. It will be an original DOC SAVAGE story that attempts to encapsulate the feeling of the whole collection of Lester Dent's work. We then talked quite a bit about George Pal's wildly off-base version. Frankly, I'm absolutely thrilled that Orci & Kurtzman handed this one off to SHANE BLACK - he understands how to write dialogue for MEN in films - and having him pen a new adventure for Clark Savage Jr and his awesome 5 partners in adventure and enterprise... Monk, Ham, Long Tom, Johnny and Renny... well, it just makes me hold my breath for a director announcement. Let's pray this gets handled just right!
Readers Talkback
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Never mind, their time is up. Cameron is back to show all the schoolkids how it's really done.
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The other day I went to my girlfriend and I said "Jeez you got a big pussy. Jeez you got a big pussy." She said "Why did you say that twice?" and I said I didn't. <p> You see, it's cuz of the echo... <p> MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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the only Doc Savage we have now is the Venture Bros. and Jonas Venture. <p> I've wondered why no one has gotten a Doc movie off the ground since Pal. But then, you know...NO ONE KNOWS WHO THE HELL Doc Savage is. <P> Seriously, like me...who ever wrote the damn article, a couple guys making the movie...and then, maybe, six more guys or gals on this site, and that's it. <P> Be fun to live in a new-Doc-Savage-movie fantasy land though!
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but as long as shanes working.
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just do Planetary. <P>This threads already fucked.
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...Savage cable show. <P> There are tons of books/adventures. <P> Again, no one knows who the man of bronze is.
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Well, there is the comic coming out. And I'm not sure you could argue that Doc Savage is entirely a creation of the 30s. They updated him and made him over into Buckaroo Banzai. It's the style of pulp adventure that you have to capture.
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and get Neil Marshall to direct it. Or Shane Black himself.
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Pal's version is by far the funniest movie he ever made. By a LONG margin.<P> I mean, When World's Collide And Cause White's Only To Survive was pretty amusing, in a kind of dark joke fashion (pun not intended), and parts of Conquest of Space were pretty much gutbusting... but Doc Savage was absolute Fried Gold.<P> And... Dr.DirtyD above is right, you know - no-one really knows about Doc Savage except those of us into the unintentional screwball comedy stylings of George Pal (and let's face it, he's no Joseph M. Newman when it comes to 50s hilarity in space,so...)<P> I'll put on a Sousa march in your honour, Harry, and sit back and remember a film that contained what is possibly the greatest martial arts fight in the history of movies. Complete with captions.<P> Off base, indeed.
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These guys can fuckin´write!! They´re money, baby, money!! ch-ching!
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Oct. 24, 2009, 6:40 a.m. CST
Tried, but never got into this particular brand of pulp...
by FlickaPoo
...after all, there were Burroughs and Howard to read when in a pulpy mood.<P>Cool to see this as a film, especially since I don't know very much about it.
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I like the fact Shane Black will be writing the screenplay for "Doc Savage." Good choice. He does know how to write dialogue for men.<p> This'll be a cool project to follow.
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There would be, almost, nothing.
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....considering I just tracked down 'Doc Salvaged: The Fan-Edit of Bronze!' by Slark yesterday!<P>I was feeling nostalgic to catch this old George Pal 'matinee' again, as I remembered it fondy from my youth, and I was a big fan of Ron Ely due to his 'Tarzan' show.<PIt's really neat that this character is getting a Shane Black makeover, but will still be set in the 30's! Hopefully Orci and Kurtzman stay away from the script, or it could end up a bigger cheese-fest than Pal's original.<P>A big-budget makeover of this guy should be great fun.
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I absolutely love Lethal Weapon, Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to death.
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....Shane Black is involved and keeping the 30s stylings for this, as Orci and Kurtzman's direlogue would have probably turned this into a bigger cheese-fest than the Pal version! A big-budget version of this character could make for great fun, and I just wish that one with Arnie in his prime had been done....
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action these days. <P> And that's why no one gives a fuck about science anymore.
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Doc is a SUPER Scientist. <P> Arnie is not. <P> if he pretended, it would be comedy goofball with action. <P> "Paaas mie da beeka."
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they must be sleeping
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...that Shane Black can come up with a great script for Doc Savage, and the idea of a big budget Doc Savage film is very cool indeed. I mean Hell, this could be the next Indiana Jones if they got the mix right, between its Pulp origins and modern cinema sensibilities. <p>The danger is, will the men with the money understand the project, and Black's script, or will they piss it up against the wall, hire a McG or a Ratner, cast a pretty boy actor rather than a man, and ruin the whole damn thing. That would be my fear. Not that Black won't deliver the goods, but that it won't matter when he does, because nobody else involved will get it. Now if they were to let Black direct as well, or at least got a director of quality, rather than a studio shill hack director, then maybe I'd get excited. Still, I'll be watching how this unfolds all the same...
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Oct. 24, 2009, 7:52 a.m. CST
I unleashed Miyamoto! Let´s see if poor Roberto shows up...
by ZombieHeathLedger
Poor Roberto still looking for geek love he will never get...
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....in the role I reckon,<p>Especially if his 'pulpy' SUPER-Scientist kicked ass with a smattering of the Souza theme behind him!
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The writing on this summer's Star Trek was a mess. The film itself came out fun, but only by getting me to forgive the tortured logic/motivations of the situations and characters, and the general clunkiness of the narrative through the charm of the cast and the skill of the director. Nothing else of theirs that I know of even came out decent.
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Oct. 24, 2009, 8:01 a.m. CST
Arnie scientist: ¨Remember when I said I´d compute you last?¨
by ZombieHeathLedger
I lied.
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... when it moves to casting cause an unknown will not be able to sell the audience to see this film like Superman.
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Oct. 24, 2009, 8:06 a.m. CST
Zombie you are amusing, hate is on a different scale
by Miyamoto_Musashi
and the personification of hate lives in Portugal
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Brought him into the then current time, and did it well<br> Also gave him the man out of his time vibe<p> I enjoyed those comics and was disapointed when they were canceled
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As my screen name shows, I'm a fan. With these producers and this writer on board, the bronze ball has started rolling in the right direction. Next up, the director and some casting choices that will make sense for the character and the current market. Doc: Duane Johnson is the easy call, but I could make an argument for Dolph Lundgren. Rolf Muller might be a fun twist, and there's a pile of wrestler guys that physically fit, but Doc's going to need a charisma that carries beyond his stoic nature. He's written as unemotional, not a great way to endear a character to the audience, so the actor is going to need to be inherently likeable. Which brings us back to Duane....Hell, he's bronzish already. Who would you guys cast for the Fab Five? Or Pat?
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... I don't know how you can do it without making it seem to modern audiences like a rip off of James Bond, Indiana Jones, or Superman ect. Heck, Doc was even doing the Vulcan Nerve Pinch 30 years before Spock.
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Oct. 24, 2009, 8:20 a.m. CST
And I Thought The Green Hornet Was A True Waste of Everyone's Ti
by A-COD
I was afraid that Green Hornet and The Phantom would be the only comic characters from the 30s that couldn't sell 2 issues in 2009 would be get a movie adaptation. Anyone that likes Doc Savage died 15 years ago. I know Harry is going to say he always loved Doc, but he likes everything old. Name one character from pre 1950 you didn't grow up loving. A friend to all, is a friend to none roundboy. Why not tailor an original character to audiences of the new millennium. Anybody get the feeling if Lucas tried to make the first Star Wars today instead of 1977 he would have been steered towards a Dan Dare remake? I'm 34 and when I think of Doc Savage I immediately see a cross between Billy Zane as the Phantom and Shaq in Steel, good luck with that.
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Ya know, with a little marketing, the public (and A-COD) could learn how much today's heroes owe the legacy of Doc Savage. A good movie can do a lot to rectify ignorance of pop culture history....
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I wouldn't chalk it up to ignorance of pop culture. Doc Savage had his day, it was 80 years ago. There's no connection to the character. Ever attempt to relaunch the character in comics has been met with a yawn. The 30s haven't been forgotten, ask The Green Hornet, John Carter of Mars, and the Phantom. Mark my words, all of these projects will lose money. Everybody loved Speed Racer right? Tell it to The WB execs that lost their jobs over that one. Move on, I'd rather a ROM Space Night project.
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I might be in the minority, Harry, but I think that Doc Savage could easily be brought into the modern era if it were handled right. It's been done successfully in comics many times before (DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse all had great modern era Doc Savage comics that did so).
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Would be awesome if Arnie's PREDATOR and LAST ACTION HERO pal Shane Black were writing DOC SAVAGE for Arnie still. Afterall, Savage never looked young in the magazines. He was always an older looking bad ass like Schwarzenegger. Shane, if you read this, write it for older Arnold and get James Cameron or Paul Verhoeven to direct. But if Arnie is too busy doing THE EXPENDABLES 2 or JAMES CAMERON films, Daniel Craig, Gerard Butler or Hugh Jackman can pull it off.
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http://arnoldfans.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=futureprojects&thread=809&page=1
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because once Orci and Kurtzman get ahold of something you enjoy, it's toast. Let the raping of childhood begin a new round...
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I think he'd do a good job<p> Only nit pic is I wish his head was a bit more squarish, instead of its vaguely tater shape
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Casting anyone???
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...MAN! OF! BRONZE!" <p> "Haaaaave no feeeaaar, the man of bronze is here..!" <p> George Pal Doc Savage hate? Really? Damn...
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No need to email you mate, could you answer here on the talkbacks for everyone to see?
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The Rock will do Doc Justice
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Any Doc Savage fan needs to read this book. The writers of Doc Savage and The Shadow reluctantly team up to stop a Chinese warlord intent on taking out NY Chinatown. L Ron Hubbard comes along for the ride. Great, great book. The whole thing is a love letter to the era of pulp with these real-life writers getting involved in the kind of hairsbreadth escapes they write up. I can't recommend it enough.
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Come on, THE ROCK??? He is a comedian now on Eddie Murphy's stupid level. Older alpah males like Arnie and Sly are at least giving the world kick ass action films like THE EXPENDABLES. Oh, Arnie films his big action scene today with Bruce Willis and Sly. It says something when Stallone is still doing hard action films and a young guy like THE ROCK is doing THE TOOTH FAIRY. What a fucking idiot Dwayne Johnson is. Fuck him as DOC SAVAGE. Get a real man like Schwarzenegger, even if he's 63 years young.
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I figure he lost a bet or something and agreed to make a movie in a TuTu
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I realize I am, by far, Not the first person to say this, AB - but your fascination with Mr. Schwarzenegger is deeply disturbing. Its time he and Sly began grooming someone to take their place, rather than trying to keep the old train going. That, plus Dwayne Johnson didn't want to be known ONLY for action movies. Unless, of course, Arnold was wrong for making a movie where he is pregnant, emotional, and soon to give birth.
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Oct. 24, 2009, 10:29 a.m. CST
Keep the widows peek, ripped up shiry and cool gun.
by the Green Gargantua
Just like the paperback covers.
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For Doc Savage. Stallone and Swarzenegger did goofy comedy roles, too. There's no one else with the physicality and poise to pull it off.
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I'll be following this like a hawk ... and who the fuck cares if the character is not widely known nowadays. There ARE some of us who are interested things that are over 5 years old and there might just be a few more if they make a good non-silly Doc Savage movie.
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Fuck Doc Savage! Gimme Johnny Depp as Dr. Strange!! This concludes my worthless post.
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But perfect for Luke Cage!!!
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Would that "somewhere" be the prison cell he was residing in, wishing to Christ he hadn't duped DVDs, thinking that a moment of geek fame on AICN was really NOT worth being tossed around as a prison-bitch for packs of Kools and Marby Reds? Just wondering.
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he was the world's first superhero...he and his team were indeed the models for both the chals and the ff<p> however, other than us geeks, who else has heard of the doc?
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Harry, you missed the real headline: the oft imitated, but never bested Shane Black is writing Doc Savage! <p> Shame on you! <p> Can't wait!
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are involved no matter who is writing it. Kurtzman and Orci must have nuclear powered mouths.
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Doc Savage is the character that everyone - Superman, Indiana Jones, James Bond - hacked themselves from- now he is being produced by two of the biggest hacks the business has ever seen.
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http://i37.tinypic.com/beee7q.jpg
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Arnie still makes pussies like THE ROCK look like shit. Check this out...http://i37.tinypic.com/21ew550.jpg
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Listen to their interviews on the Creative Screenwriting podcast. They get a lot of work because they roll over for every ridiculous studio lowest common denominator suggestion. Shane Black won't be Shane Black after they "polish" his script to make it more mainstream.
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It doesn't matter how good the script is. Once the studios get done Doc will be literally made of bronze. Monk will be a gorilla with the brain of a genius chemist implanted. Renny will have fists the size of his head and will use them to punch through stone walls. Johnny will be unable to communicate with anybody because he has a rare condition that only lets him speak using the most obscure words possible. Ham will only be there as the lawyer who bails them out of jail each time they are arrested over some misunderstanding by a farcically ignorant cop. And Long Tom will probably be dropped in favor of a smartass kid. Because of course everybody loves wisecracking kids and there just isn't anything about Long Tom that can be cartoonishly exaggerated.<P><P> Or even worse. The studios will decide that a hot female is needed so they will bring in Megan Fox as Pat and the entire story line will revolve around her.<P><P> But Dwayne Johnson would make a decent Doc.
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This could go bad in so many ways. It needs to be ridden and controlled by someone with enough hollywood respect that interfering with the plans would be minimal. Someone as a producer or director that would truly respect and use the property to it's best advantage. Dare I suggest Speilberg?
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But according to wikipedia he does literally everything: Doctor, inventor, adventurer, near-superhuman strength, photographic memory and on and on. So I guess he's Bruce Wayne without bothering with a secret identity?
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Bring on Doc, the fortress of solitude, the sidekicks, I'm in!
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Would it work?
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Didn't Arnie kinda 'pass the torch' to him with his cameo in "The Runaway"?
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...was my fav Doc Savage title, way back when. Followed by "The Ghost Legion". Man, I feel old.
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i have heard of him.I think he has a tribute cameo in the Planetary comic,where he seems to be a very cool character. <p>But since orci and kutz are behind this project,you know they are going to fuck it in a way or other.
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Spielberg will work also.
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Kevin McKidd? Dude was a badass in Rome.
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I haven't seen one of those in many a year. Did I go back in time to 1999?
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I am a very long time Doc Savage fan, back from when Marvel published the B&W magazines, which led me to the reprints, which led me to the Ron Ely movie. More on that in a minute.<p> But the notion that you - or general public need to know who Doc is before a movie can be made, is false. Did the public know who Terminator, Neo, Rambo, Rocky, John McClane etc. etc. were before those movies came out?<p> No.<p> Make a movie that is entertaining and action packed, and the audience will find it. In fact because of the relative lack of knowledge, the writer does not have to be too beholden to the history - although let me stress that I really would love to see Doc portrayed as close to the source as possible. <p> As for the George Pal movie, I liked it. In fact as a kid, I loved it because that was the only Doc movie that was ever made. Ron Ely played Doc straight. He showed a lot of respect for the character. I still remember reading the interview with him in the back pages of the old mag, with Pal standing on a milk carton - to emphasize Ely's height. The movie was dumb, but it did have some very good elements, and some very good moments at times. What kills the movie and even back then what I hated, was the portrayal and betrayal of Monk and Ham. Turned them into effeminate, whiny, bitches. Yes, and the Sousa music was inappropriate - to say the least,as well. <p> But Doc standing on running board and saying 'Do a Barney Oldfield' was classic. And lets not forget Pamela Hensley!
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How you geeks like Bob Porci and The Klutzman now? You geeks never learn!
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it was low budget<p> the doc stories cry out for budgets on par with indiana jones<P> again, my fear is, no matter how original the character is, audiences will see the movie as ripping off other genre films...because they know nothing about the original pulp series<P> i got into savage back in 73, before the movie, when i read the farmer book, which is still in print...and i suggest everyone grab a copy...it is brilliant
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..s**t. BO success, yes, but.. crap.
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Oct. 24, 2009, 2:28 p.m. CST
Was his skin really bronze or was he George Hamilton TAN?
by the Green Gargantua
always wondered.
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Am very upset to here that Doc Savage film is being made in America - I had hoped he would return to his roots and be a more powerfull man - using his powers to kill people and take all the ladies to bed. I hoped at the end of the last film that the Doc had found a small sliver of happiness - but no this has been taken away from him - why? My Uncle Esteban worked on the first movie as a guide in the South American scenes - he says a better take on this beautiful, if misunderstood, character has never been commited to screen or paper. I am glad my uncle will not be seeing this film since he was locked away in '85 over the Reagan-Thatcher-Ben Dover scandal. I am most unhappy.
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He'd have to hit the gym, but Damian Lewis (Band Of Brothers, Dreamcatcher, NBC's Life) is 6'1", 38 years old, in good shape, got an appropriately strong look and voice, and his acting chops are steller. There's an articulate intellegence in his demenor that would portend Doc's genius of science, medicine and deductive reasoning. He's versitile and a brilliant mimic just as Doc Savage is supposed to be a master of disguise and voices. I really think he's the man for the job unless you're gonna go make some perfect 40 year old genetic hybrid of Charlton Heston, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Selleck and Steve McQueen.
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make it so
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Super smart, yes. Very much in shape...1930's strong isn't the same as hyper-uber-scary strong, like we have now in days. <P>
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And cast that guy from the Mist. <P> He's about right.
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You can't get any closer. <P> But would he do it?
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...is the best movie news I've "heard" in a while.<p>It'll be refreshing to hear really smart dialogue with plot points and action sequences that all work well together (and make sense).
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...Pal movie is when Doc is chasing an assassin. When the killer runs out of bullets he hurls his rifle at Doc, upon whose manly chest the rifle just bounces off. Classic. <p> I do love the Pal movie since I have fond memories of seeing it in the theater with my dad when I was a kid. He used to read the Doc Savage stories when he was young and got me hooked on them as well after we had seen the film. <p> I'm appalled at the likes of talkbacker A-COD who shit on anything without boffo box office potential. "Anyone who likes Doc Savage died 15 years ago." Oh, do fuck off.
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I'm not wrong about this. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
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Word is Shane Black is very persuasive with the studio suits during meetings and knows how to convince the "committees" to keep his best stuff in the script.
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Its the getting air head studio green lighters to take a chance on an older than dirt character. <P> They had to "remind" kids what Star Trek was, remember?
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...was the shit back in the day. I used to faithfully watch him as Tarzan on TV in the 1970s. Cool dude.
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it. Someone with Shane Black's experience and tenure (he's been a paid screenwriter for over almost 25 years) has enough work behind him that Orci and Kurtzman wouldn't get in his way. They're probably trying to protect him from unnecessary interference.
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way this gets made. <P> Their movies make money, rightfully or not.
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Forget it. It would have been enough that Orci and Kurtzman walked past the office where the film was being discussed for AssLives to put the eternal "X" on it. Trust me, it doesn't matter if they have literally nothing to do with the script. AssLives will be shrieking his girly lament for aaaaaages after this thing comes out.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8lMJ7Kavzk<p>Apologies if it's been posted in a past AICN Doc Savage TB. Based on this clip, the closest thing to Ely today is Gerard Butler.
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http://tinyurl.com/yl4n2do
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He really did look the part.
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However, the clip/post should have included a credit stating:<p>"Inspired by DocPazu"
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Although, he may not want to be type cast as "guy from back in the day."
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By the time Boborci and the other clown get through with him . . .
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I saw him in the MAD MEN episode about Don Draper's time in Korea and dude certainly has action guy wherewithal.
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Casting will be everything here, casting will be key. <p> And a script that doesn't make you wretch upon reading same, as well.
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Thoughtful. <P> I can see him, easy, wearing goggles, hunched over in his lab.
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...in character, as it were, at all the right moments.
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with all of this 80's action fan boy talk about Arnie and sly and...Dolph? <P> Doc uses brain and brawn in equal measure. Would you cast any of those 80's action guys as Sherlock Holmes, or Lex Luthor? <P> They'd sound crazy and goofy
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That would be great. The last thirty seconds or so of the Pal movie were terrific, the voice leaving a cryptic message on doc's home made answering machine (they didn't have them then) about a plot to kill millions, then argh! ... followed by Doc on the runing board of a roadster driving into the winter's night ...? That's Doc. And it has to be the 30s for the same reason the new MISSION IMPOSSIBLE series failed. The gadgetry which impressed us in the 60s, seemed to ho-hum when brought forward to the 80s setting.
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in the Impossible movies. <P> They could have. With the right creative minds working, i'm sure you could bring a pulp era gadget style into the modern age. <P> They wussed out with Mission. <P> I see your point StarWolf. Modern gadgets can be boring and lame. But i think it's because boring and lame people are making them.
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But i don't think its impossible to pull off. <P> Doc would be horrified by the state of science education in the US.
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Oct. 24, 2009, 6:07 p.m. CST
girl added to the team and Chris Pine will be courted
by Professor_Monster
Just the top of the list when it comes to what Orci and Kurtzman will do happily to get their version to the screen. Doc was the first all round badass, but he'll be played on equal with some chic like Megan Fox whose backstory will involve graduating top in her class at Princeton and martial arts training. This will be Doc Savage in NAME ONLY - how are they going to use terms like "fortress of solitude" - or the fact that Doc would sometimes torture the assholes he caught to find out information - actually he would have his boys take care of that - but C'mon. Orci and Kurtzman doing this is like letting Richard Simmons coach a football team
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Patricia "Pat" Savage, Doc's cousin.
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DOC SAVAGE has cried out to be made into a decent big budget action movie since 1981, when RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK showed the world that this kind of material could be done right. NOw, here we are, almost 30 years later, and still no Doc. Rumors have come and gone, but the Man of Broze is still nowhere to be seen. I hope this is the one that pans out. If done right, this could be the next big action/adventure franchise on the silver screen. Oh, and to all of you fucktards who say that no one today knows who Doc Savage is...fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Doc is the template of all that has come down the pike since his creation, from Superman to Indiana Jones. If this film does finally come to fruition, and is made with the respect it deserves, then a big I TOLD YOU SO will be in order for all of you naysayers.
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I don't want the camp of the Pal film but, let's face it, the original word smith Lester Dent took a somewhat less than serious approach when writing the original series. Most of the time Doc's adventures were a combination of slam bang action and screw ball comedy. Most likely that was one of the reasons why Doc Savage was the only long running pulp series to be entirely reprinted in the paperback era. Once again, I don't want camp, but humor WAS a part of the original series.
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While there are better actors out there, Dolph's physicality (6'5" and a 3rd degree black belt in traditional Japanese karate) is matched with a real-world scientific background: He has a degree in chemical engineering and won a Fulbright scholarship to MIT! And he bears a resemblance to the original choice for a film version of Doc from the 60's, Chuck Connors.
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He is bigger and smarter than Dolph! He has a PhD and is the boxing champeen of the world!
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ie, the pansy version. Stallone? The Rock? Schwarzie? LUNDGREN?? WTF! Doc was an urbane genius- not to be played by some retard/lunkhead. It ain't about brawn. You need a slightly older, 6'6" 300 lb version of Ryan Reynolds or somebody like that. (He'll spend half the flick with his shirt torn off, after all). Someone with at least a spark of intelligence. Doc was the precursor of ALL the action heroes to follow: Supes ripped off his Fortress of Solitude; the FF ripped off his skyscraper aerie for the Baxter Bldg; on and on. Here was a huge, perfect physical specimen with unlimited resources (constant flow of gold from Hidalgo) , a warehouse full of limos, roadsters, airplanes, gyrocopters, his own submarine... machine pistols, anesthetic bombs (little glass balls full of knockout gas), all the gadgets you could want in the 30's-40's. Even though they churned out a hundred of these pulp novels, many of them were EPIC. Big sprawling world-traveling adventures. Mayan assassins running around NYC in full native dress. Dinosaurs! The Sargasso Sea! They were epic and also pretty HARD-BOILED. Crazy evil villains. One of my favorites was DEATH IN SILVER. A gang of bad guys dressed in silver KKK outfits tearing up the city. They boobytrapped a house by coating the floor with ACID GEL. Some poor henchman runs through- his shoes start to be eaten away- he's rolling around on the floor screaming- and his TOE BONES ARE FLYING IN ALL DIRECTIONS! Fucking awesome stuff. Not to mention his "College" upstate where he ships all the villains to be lobotomized and made into model citizens- the ones who survive a given story that is. I was CRUSHED when George Pal gave Doc the Adam West Batman treatment. They absolutely need to keep the story as a period piece, and it probably should be at least PG-13- the books certainly were. Wasn't Frank Darabont involved with a treatment at one point? He's a good choice, or FUCKING G. DEL TORO would do a killer Doc movie.
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They'll just cast Christian Bale. <p>All he has to do is keep that Patrick Bateman stoneface thing going, a couple of gallons of bronzer and he's a lock. Unless, of course, noted nerd Nicholas Cage comes sniffing around. Then it's totally fucked. Casting the rest of 'em, that'll be trickier...Hmmm. Adrian Brody as Ham or Johnny, Damien Lewis as Renny, Michael Chiklis as Monk,can't think of anybody offhand to play Long Tom...somebody pale, thin and balding. They'll probably cast Jeremy Irons as a villain..
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.. thinking about a Del Toro doing this movie. I loved the Doc Savage books as a young teen- I went directly from Tom Swift to Doc (not dissimilar types of stories). I spent years fondly scouring used bookstores around Boston trying to find all of the Doc Bantam paperback books, eventually finding all but a couple. As an adolescent I had already amassed the complete set of Tom Swift hardcovers - a new one came out every January, I would save my money, and my Mom would drive me to the store to get the newest one - yearly ritual. Complete set of Tom Swift, nearly complete set of Doc Savage (60+ maybe?). On one of my family's many moves in the 70's we lost all of my books. EVERY. DAMN. ONE. This is why I'm SO FUCKED UP.
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Doc Savage vs Tarzan! Doc banging Pat Savage! The first book (A Feast Unknown) Is full of X rated sex. The original edition is illustrated by Richard Corbin. They are great stories, though. As far as casting, despite the George Bama covers, which I love, the model for those was around 50 to 60 years old, and Doc is really around 35 .
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As he is further ass-raped in prison.
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Phillip Jose Farmer had some pretty radical approaches to SF for his time.
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FUCK YEAH!
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perfect timing on that one. Good job.
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Oct. 25, 2009, 2:13 a.m. CST
Shit, I wouldn't want Orci or Kuntzman anywhere near this projec
by Stalkeye
Or anywhere else. Asi is right."They never learn" :/
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will excel at authentically replicating the racist tones in the old pulps.
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typing while sleepy, again
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Fuckers got a thick skin! Lo' Bob....
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...people who go "no one even knows/remembers who that character is, so why bother?". That argument, in filmic terms, makes, literally, no sense whatsoever. None. Not even a bit. <p> I mean, guess what? No one knew who Indiana Jones was before Raiders of the Lost Ark. No one knew who Luke Skywalker was before Star Wars. And most people had no idea who John J. Rambo was, or who Police Chief Martin Brody was, before First Blood and Jaws respectively, though both were based on books that had, at the time, achieved some small degree of success and popularity. Did that stop any of those characters from being embraced by the public? From becoming icons of modern popular culture? No it did not. <p>Fact is, at least 90% of all characters in new films are characters that we haven't yet met, and don't know anything about until we see the films and spend time with them. Of the other 10%, most have, at best, a niche level of knowledge in a very small proportion of the potential viewing audience due to the fact that they began life in a novel, or comic, or some other medium. The rest, maybe 1%, are based on characters that have already achieved a certain level of widespread fame prior to their (latest) filmic journey, due to being based on a major widely known comic or book character, or videogame franchise, or previous tv show, movie or cartoon, or famous historical person or whatever. <p>But the fact is, in the case of the vast majority of (non sequel) films, most characters for most people out there are unknown quantities until the day that they watch the movie in question, so why does it matter if it is an unknown character who is an original creation of the film's screenwriter, or just a largely unknown character who has a small niche audience already due to the fact that they started life in a book, or radio play, or comic or whatever. A character that has already been given life, and now has the opportunity to have that life expanded on film. Ultimately their origin is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is, will the film be good enough to give that character life and make us care about them in the film in question. On a deeper level those niche fans want to see a character that they recognise, because they already know the potential of these largely unknown (to the public at large) characters, but whether the character started life on the script page, or on an early book page, it really makes no difference in their legitimacy to see life on film, as you'd have to say that even the most obscure characters still have one up on that 90% of brand new, never before known characters that populate most films. So why the negativity over bringing such characters to the screen? Honestly, makes no logical sense at all.
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...glomming onto this and screwing it up beyond all human recognition. He'd make the George Pal version look classy. <p>Other than his likely knowledge and enthusiasm for the character, Cage would be SO wrong for this. Doc was stoic, where Cage is morose. Doc was calm, where Cage is manic. Doc was a physically perfect specimen in his mid thirties, where Cage is a balding guy going to pot in his late forties... <p>I ain't saying that this movie can't be done right. If Batman can go from the TV series to "The Dark Knight", then Doc Savage can earn the same respect. <p>It's all in the tone. I wouldn't want to see Doc doing nothing more than chasing colorful goons and pulling another convenient gee-whiz gadget out of his ass at a moment's notice. They'd have to play something off the fundamental difference between Doc and Batman - That while both are billionaire genius crimefighters, Batman is a solitary creature of vengeance, and Doc was raised from birth to advance Science, Rationality and the Public Good, while reining in the squirrelier forces of paranoia and Science Gone Mad, all the time backed by a trusted team with similar outlooks and abilities. <p>Doc wasn't defined by his villains, the way Batman is. He had a broader scope, a larger vision. They gotta find a way to work that angle, but without making Doc look like a goody-two-shoes Boy Scout with a fat wallet. There has to be a way...
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How about getting Wentworth Miller to play Doc? The guy who starred in the PRISON BREAK series would be damn good in the role.
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And MAN was that shit tight!
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God, I loved these books when I was a kid. Would LOVE to see an authentic Doc Savage movie.
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I think this is awesome news, and if handled correctly the movie will be a smash hit. Pulp is still doing just fine these days, and in fact the Doc Savage novels (as well as The Shadow and Avenger novels) are being steadily reprinted in gorgeous volumes by Sanctum Books, two novels per book at $12.95. There's also the upcoming comic series from DC, which looks very promising, and a great new series of modern pulp adventures by writer Tim Byrd (apparently an old friend of Shane Black's actually if his recent blog posts indicate) about "Doc Wilde," who is a bigtime homage to Doc Savage. The first book came out this year and is called DOC WILDE AND THE FROGS OF DOOM. It's also loaded with other pulp and literary allusion, including a strong amount of H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon cycle. I've heard rumors of Hollywood interest but don't think anything definite has come up yet. Doc Wilde info is at http://www.docwilde.com, and info about the Sanctum reprints can be found at http://members.cox.net/comingattractions3/SanctumBooks.html. And it won't be hard finding the DC stuff.
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Cast the Rock. He can do intelligent, and he has the bronze look, and the physique and charisma to pull something like this off. The Rock should be leading a major action franchise, before he gets too old to do it!
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to many tropical suns. <P> That phrase was used in many of the books. <P>
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Exactly what I was thinking . What short memories folks on here have...
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What's the story there then? Last review of his I read was MI2, then was away from here for years.
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After his 'ohmage' to his mentor and friends creation, miller can cut to the heart of any character and show you what the creators were really trying to portray<p> Just need to figure which of the fab five Spam Jackson will play<p> Oh Wait Spam can play John Sunlight!!1!ELEVENTY!!!1
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but this has jack black playing doc written all over it. shall we start a petition?
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For those who still love Doc, my homage to the hero (though strictly speaking, it's not Doc himself) will appear in the March 2010 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction (due out in January). The novella's title is "Helping Them Take the Old Man Down." My father gave me those books when I was a kid; I loved them, though I admit I loved the covers more.
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I really liked Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang Let this happen.
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Thanks for the mention, Punkinking. Yes, my character Doc Wilde is a very loving homage to Doc Savage, though I also try to make him his own man. And there is a great deal of Lovecraftian stuff in DOC WILDE AND THE FROGS OF DOOM. It's sort of a love letter to some of the stuff I've always loved to read. And I did used to know Shane, and he gave me a lot of encouragement. I know he's as big a fan of the Man of Bronze as any of us, so I'm ecstatic to hear he's scripting. Also, I second your recommendation of the Sanctum Books reprints. I have everything they've put out so far and revisiting these stories many years after I read them as a kid has been a blast. Folks might also check out The Spider's adventures, some of which have been reprinted by Baen Books, and which are also being reprinted regularly by Girasol Collectibles. Best, Tim Byrd
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Super science and adventure. <p> Hey Orci, go watch the Venture bros.
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.... Was a fucking GOD to me when I was growing up and reading the books
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Can you feel the righteous scorn?
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Really, they should just make the Monk and Ham show...i love those guys.
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One: Orci and Kurtzman get too much hate. WTF do you think you're going to get in a Transformers movie helmed by Michael Bay? <p> Two: They are PRODUCING. Which means fewer hacks trying to interfere. They were smart enough to hire Shane Motherfucking Black. <p> I swear you talkbackers would bitch if gold came out of your girlfriend's ass (which would mean you were lucky on two accounts; you'd have gold AND you'd actually have some sort of relation with the opposite sex). <p> You can all bitch. I'm psyched.
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in the film. <P> critical: I guess everyone needs a punching bag. A focus for all of their film frustrations. I long for the good old days of Joe Eszterhas hate.
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really know the 70s doc savage movie, with the anomation snakes, and it scared the shit out of me. shane black is number one in my book of screenwriters whose movies i cant wait for after kiss kiss bang bang...
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I hear Rosie ODonnell's lookin for work. Hell, with some prosthetic hair she can play Chemistry too! Dual role!
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Ann Coulter would make a great Chemistry. Of course, then we'd have to see her...no. Never mind.
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and a John Carter movie, both faithful to the source material are two things I'm holding onto life for.<p> But I have a bad feeling that some producer or another studio big wig will insist on a jar jar character.<br> Or give Doc bling and a grill because it's *edgy*<br> Or full torso tats that have mystic properties. Or some other nonsense.<p> Hollywood has proven time and again, it just doesn't know when to let it alone.<p> So brace yourself for Doc Savage fighting polar bears and giant mechanical spiders while wearing either his blue or red super suits, and<br> John Carter rapper of Mars and his wacky sidekick Jar Jarkas
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"Doc is really around 35" Sounds about right. In the 'prequel' novel ESCAPE FROM LOKI where it's described how he met his aides, he was in his early teens in WW I, making him in his early-mid thirties by the start of the original novels set in the nineteen thirties.
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... because Doc did fight a polar bear and has confronted a giant mechanical spider in the original novels. (The Polar Treasure and The Mountain Monster.) I agree with everything you said about Hollywood screwing things up however. Nothing is scarier than when the writer or the director says something like, "We have tried to remain true to the spirit of the character." That spells doom every time.
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Oct. 26, 2009, 8:39 a.m. CST
Story is bullshit - Black says Orci and Kurtzman -
by Professor_Monster
have NOTHING to do with this project.
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Harry, you have a right to your opinion (hell everyone does) but I think the George Pal movie had everything a Doc Savage movie should have. It just had some things it didn't need (hokey music, Baby Crib). The creators just didn't quite know what to do with Doc. Hopefully the new guys do. Honestly,I could write this movie, it should write itself if they get the right guy. It will be all in the marketing, casting and a little PULP insurance as my Pulp adventure players often say. "Have no fear--Doc Savage is hear!"
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... it was featured in one of the original Doc Savage novels ie Repel or as Bantam Books called it, The Deadly Dwarf. Pal did not pull that prop out of nowhere. Like it or not there was a lot of "campy" humor in those novels.
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Just trying to imagine him with a blonde crewcut!
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yeah I knew, but he didn't use supersuits.<br> And i was referencing what Jon Peters wanted for the last superman movie
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...and right on the money. The argument that a property is "too obscure" drives me nuts every time, whether it's said about Iron Man or any other property. "Shrek" was a horribly obscure (for good reason) children's book, yet has made insane amounts of money at the box office. "Where the Wild Things Are" is far more famous, and won't make nearly as much (despite looking like a far greater movie). The source of the material doesn't matter... the film itself does, and how well it fits into what the ever-shifting audience's tastes are at the time of its release. As William Goldman said, "Nobody knows anything".
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Oct. 26, 2009, 2:37 p.m. CST
Whoever it was who said Thomas Jane looked about right for Doc..
by Forthesakeofhumanity
...might actually be onto something there! He has the physicality, the jaw, and can actually act!
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I mentioned it earlier, then i switched to jon Hamm, 'cause someone mentioned him off hand. Now a few folks have taken to that suggestion.
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great, then it won't get made. <P> could you, maybe, attach yourself then?
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We are such huge fans of Shane, that we would produce the phone book with him.
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feels the same way.
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Shouldn't you be writing Star Trek 2 right now? <P> I don't want to sound like a foremen, but get back to work dude.
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I kinda figured that you did know that. Both stories have been reprinted recently and judging from your past comments, you know your Doc and John Carter. And I also caught the Jon Peters context. At least there is little chance of a gay robot. What really concerns me, my friend, is your comment on a wacky sidekick for John Carter. Given Hollywood, that is entirely possible. And speaking of Hollywood, am I the only one that thinks that Brandon Fraiser might make a good Doc? He can do both serious and humor and his Mummy character looks like it was pulled strait off the old Doc pulp covers.
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for Halloween. <P> But playing him in a serious Doc film, I don't know.
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...in my worst nightmare!!! We want an actor to play Tarzan's cousin, not George of the Jungle's!!
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I guess it could work. He has the right look, and there is a charisma about him. I don't know that he'd be the best choice, but there are sure worse ones. As for Doc's skin being bronzed by tropical suns... I know the books say that, but Doc spent most of his time in New York City, and when he wasn't there he was usually in his arctic Fortress of Solitude. When he went to the tropics friends went him. Why aren't they just just as bronze? I think it's time to say what "Kenneth Robeson" could not say in the 30s: Doc was a bit more than "one drop" black. He was passing. Casting some of those buddies of his is going to be a lot tougher than casting Doc.
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Nope. Doc's not part black. He's part Mayan. Clearly his father found love in the lost valley.
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