Back in 2013, director Shane Black signed on to direct a big screen adaptation of Doc Savage, based upon Henry W. Ralston, John L. Nanovic and Lester Dent’s pulp hero of the 1930s, with Dwayne Johnson subsequently revealing in 2016 that he was set to take on the role of the Man of Bronze.
With Black currently in post-production on his latest film The Predator, Pure Grain Audio has been chatting to the director about his next project, and whether it might be the long-gestating Doc Savage movie.
“I don’t know right now because I’m busy editing Predator,” said Black. “Editing has begun, so that’s a process not of weeks, but months. Predator is still a focus and will be until November at least. Along the way, I’ll see where things land and the chips fall. We talked about Doc Savage with Dwayne Johnson, but Dwayne’s dance card is pretty full. If there’s a slot for us, I don’t know. There might be, I think he wants to do it but you don’t always win. So if that’s the case I might have to shift to something. I’m open to it and I’ll just roll with it. In the meantime, if I have an idea that I think I want to sit down and write by myself, I’ll do that too. The only thing I want to create is something prolific, especially as I get older. I don’t know what I’ll do next after Predator, but I do know that I owe it to myself to first and foremost is to be prolific and not just drift.”
As Black mentions, Johnson has an abundance of projects on his upcoming slate. He’s in pre-production on the action thriller Skyscraper, and has the likes of Jungle Cruise, Black Adam and San Andreas 2 all on his upcoming slate, so it remains to be seen if and when Doc Savage might fit into his schedule.
Originally published July 20, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
