Since their success writing Star Trek and Transformers 2, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have been busy taking over Hollywood and now have so many massive movies on their slate, both as producers and writers, that soon no blockbuster release will be complete without their name attached to it somehow. The duo are currently involved as producers or writers in the likes of Star Trek 2, Cowboys & Aliens, Atlantis Rising, a Viewmaster movie and The 28th Amendment, as well as their ongoing work as producers on TV’s Fringe, and many more.
We can now add a new film for 30s pulp magazine Doc Savage to Orci and Kurtzman’s list. The news came from Shane Black, acclaimed writer of Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, who revealed to Aint It Cool News that he is preparing to write the script for the film, with Orci and Kurtzman producing.
Despite his rather super-villain sounding name, Doc Savage is a hero of 1930s pulp magazines, who can basically do pretty much anything. Wikipedia describes him as “a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher… and musician.” He was trained to take his mind and body to near superhuman abilities, and goes about righting wrongs and punishing evildoers.
Apparently the new film version won’t try to modernise the character and make him more James Bond, instead keeping him in the 30s.
It’s certainly not the first time people have tried to bring the character to the screen. There was an aborted attempt at a TV series in 1967, but he did make it to cinemas in 1975’s awful Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze, but the movie failed both cirtically and commercially. In the late 90s there was talks of a new version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but obviously that never happened. Let’s hope they have more luck this time around.