Back in 1991 Disney massively hyped up their mega-budget comic book movie, The Rocketeer, but unfortunately the movie landed with a thud at the box office. While director Joe Johnston has talked about a sequel ever since, it never seemed likely to happen.
However, now Vulture reports that the House Of Mouse is now mulling over rebooting the character, hoping that in these more comic friendly times – and with Iron Man and Captain America having proved popular – it may be time to bring The Rocketeer back to the big screen.
Based on Dave Stevens 1982 comic, The Rocketeer featured Bill Campbell as Cliff Secord, a daredevil racing pilot in the late 1930s who comes across an experimental rocket jetpack stolen from Howard Hughes. He uses the pack to become a masked hero, which brings him into conflict with the gangsters who stole it in the first place and eventually sees him battling Nazis. Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin and Timothy Dalton co-starred.
At the minute any reboot is in the very early stages, with Disney soliciting ideas from writers for a new take on the character, so there’s a good chance it may never happen, especially with so much comic-book cash being funnelled from Disney to Marvel for their movies, but it might be fun if it did.