Super hero movies. You might be asking yourself, when will this hegemony end? Well, in case you haven’t already guessed, as far as the box-office demand shows, they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Case in point, while Marvel Films & Disney keep looking deeper into their archives to see which B-list or even C-list characters could warrant the excuse of their own film, so does D.C. Comics and Warner Bros.
The latest super hero film news comes from It’sOnTheGrid (via BAD) with word of a “Hawkman” picture apparently in development.
According to IOTG’s info, the picture is being shepherded by producers Adrian Askarieh, Gregory Noveck and Will Hackner on board as the production executive. Askarieh has been developing super hero film, “Danger Girl,” Kane & Lynch,” “Hitman 2,” and an historical/fiction action adventure picture called “Leonardo Da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever,” the latter of which is interesting considering the log-line of “Hawkman.” Formerly an SVP of Creative Affairs at D.C., now at Syfy, Noveck is one of the executive producers of D.C. Animated pictures like “Wonder Woman,” “Justice League: The New Frontier,” and “Superman/Doomsday.” Not bad credits. The current log-line listed on IOTG and more is below.
Part INDIANA JONES/DA VINCI CODE, part GHOST tentpole about the fictional superhero that appears in D.C. Comic books. He used archaic weaponry and large, artificial wings attached to a harness made of the Nth metal that allows flight. Most incarnations of Hawkman work closely with a partner/romantic interest named Hawkgirl or Hawkwoman in his fight against supervillains. Based on the DC comic.
Huh, those three aforementioned films are probably not what most comic book fans were expecting when they were thinking of a “Hawkman” film, though it gives one a key into which origin story of the character producers will use. Like many super hero origins, many of their histories have been rewritten over time; changed to fit the mood of writers or the signs o’ the time. So Hawkman comes in two flavors, the original which centers around an American archeologist named Carter Hall who is actually a reincarnated Prince from ancient egyptian times and discovers the “Nth metal” which allows him to fly. The second incarnation of “Hawkman,” is Karter Hol, a police officer from the alien planet of Thanagar.
But with a log-line that mentions “Indiana Jones” and “The Da Vinci Code,” we can safely assume the alien version of “Hawkman” has been discarded for this project. Frankly, we don’t really see the point as “Hawkman” has always been a supporting member of the Justice League of America and doesn’t seem interesting enough to justify his own film, but we’ll concede that everyone thought the same way about “Iron Man” and look how that turned out for Marvel (though give more credit to Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. than the actual character, please). So what’s next for D.C., presuming this picture ever makes it to the screen? A Black Canary film? Elongated Man? Booster Gold? Dare to dream. It does beg the question though: if Warner/D.C. can’t get their A-list “Wonder Woman” film off the ground (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman forming D.C.’s holy trinity), what business do they have mounting a “Hawkman” film?
Meanwhile, the timing on this news couldn’t be worse. Frog Island Films recently made a super hero short film that mocks this very subject — just the idea of a Hawkman movie. If you’re looking for a pretty funny, and salient reason why this movie would be unnecessary well, just watch below.