It’s been pretty clear for a while that director Shane Black and Dwayne Johnson have wanted to make “Doc Savage” together, and it was really just a matter of boring things like contracts getting signed. Well, consider the ink dry as The Rock has confirmed he will indeed be leading the superhero (of sorts) movie, posting the news to social media with no shortage of enthusiasm to boot.
The long brewing project will bring to life the popular pulp character from the ’30s and ’40s who essentially has a Superman-esque array of powers (indeed, Doc Savage inspired the creation of the Man of Steel), but no social graces, making him a flawed, endearing hero. And that’s precisely what Johnson is eager to dive into.
“Doc was physically and mentally trained from birth by his father and a team of scientists to become the perfect human specimen with a genius level intellect. His heightened senses are beyond comprehension. He can even identify a women’s perfume from half a mile away. He is literally the master of everything,” the actor wrote. “But here’s the #1 reason I’m excited to become Doc Savage.. HE’S A F*CKING HILARIOUS WEIRDO! Confidently, yet innocently he has zero social graces whatsoever due to his upbringing so every interaction he has with someone is direct, odd, often uncomfortable and amazingly hilarious.”
His comments echo what Black recently told us about the character, one that he hopes to keep rooted in his ’30s and ’40s milieu. “….it’s about an era. It’s about a belief in exoticism that transcended the blight of the depression, that allowed you to look from your Hooverville camp across to the Empire State Building and know there’s a guy there who represented the pinnacle of everything you could aspire to, and he encouraged everyone to save themselves,” the director told us. “It’s Superman before Superman. But you have to change up the character — it’s got to be more colloquial, more about friendship. It’s a totally different tone [from Superman].”
No word yet on when it will shoot, but presumably it’s a while off. Next up for Black is “The Predator” which opens in the spring of 2018, while The Rock has far too many projects at the moment to name. But you can probably consider “Doc Savage” high on the priority list for both director and actor.
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