Shane Black’s directorial debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang* wore Shane Black’s love of pulp** novels on its sleeve, and now Columbia will be helping Black dive into that world directly.

Doc Savage will be Black’s avenue into the era of 30s and 40s adventure novels- he’ll be directing the film and co-writing with Chuck Mondry and Anthony Baragozzi. Sony-based producer Neal Moritz (a human being who could seriously not be attached to more projects) will guide the flick through production, as he’s done with the upcoming Green Hornet.

I’m not directly familiar with the Doc Savage stories (be they the radio, comic book, novella, or movie versions), but the character is famous for his globe-trotting adventures that include villains and characters that traverse every genre, from sci-fi to horror.

As I dug around for more background on the character, I’ve gotten the impression that Doc Savage was kind of a model for the Scooby-Doo school of “supernatural business with a rational explanation” storytelling. From Wikipedia:

“A keynote of Doc’s adventures is that no matter how fantastic the monster or menace, there was usually a rational scientific explanation at the end. A giant mountain-walking spider was revealed as a blimp, a scorching death came from super-charged electric batteries, a “sea angel” was a mechanical construct towed behind a submarine, Navy ships sunk by a mysterious compelling force were actually sabotaged, and so on. But Doc Savage also battled invisible killers, a murderous teleporter, and superscientific foes from the center of the earth.”

Frankly I’m hoping for an old-school villain who just wants to take over or blow up the whole fucking world. I don’t feel there are enough of those in cinema these days.

Columbia Co-President Matt Tolmach is certainly excited about the potential of Doc Savage.

“Doc Savage is an icon, a character with limitless possibilities… We have had a great experience working with Neal to bring another classic character of the era, the Green Hornet, to a new generation of fans, and we think he and Shane make the ideal team to bring Doc Savage back to the bigscreen.”

This would seem to be a dream gig for Black, and I can think of few people I’m more excited to see launching a passion project. We could be looking at a classic in the making Chewers.

Source | Variety

*You should fuck out of this article and treat yourself if you haven’t seen it.

** REAL pulp, not the excusatory adjective used to describe modern dumb-but-fun genre flicks.