It’s certainly been a good year for screenwriter-turned-director Shane Black, whose second collaboration with Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man 3, not only launched Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also climbed to fifth in the all time global box office chart with a worldwide box office haul of $1.209 billion. Having tacked Marvel’s Armored Avenger, Black is now set to turn his attention to the pulp hero Doc Savage and during a chat with Collider at last week’s Saturn Awards, the filmmaker offered a few details on his plans for the adaptation:
“We’re shooting it as though it’s in the 30s, including all the Capra-esque elements of 1930s films like You Can’t Take It With You. The idea of ‘What if Jimmy Stewart were a stone-cold killer?’ basically. It’s that kind of combination which we enjoy… Doc Savage is a personal film to me. It’s a 1930s pulp character so it hasn’t been around for 75 years or so, but people if they’re introduced to it they’ll get to know, hopefully, what I came to love as a kid. I’ve read those series for 43 years and always wanted to figure out how to crack it.”
Black has co-written the screenplay for Doc Savage with Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, and the film is set up as his next directing project.
Originally published June 30, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
