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Clark ‘Doc’ Savage Perfect Movie For Dwayne Johnson/Shane Black Team Up, ‘The Man Of Bronze’ Remake Hopes To Return Pre-Superhero Icon To Pop Culture

By Colin Fredericson
Published on: 08:32 PST, May 31, 2016

Clark “Doc” Savage will have his own movie in a few years time thanks to discussions between writer/director Shane Black and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Rock and Shane worked out a future time to make a Doc Savage movie in the midst of Johnson’s multitude of current entertainment projects. Starting the movie right now just isn’t possible, so Shane Black will continue working on his Predator revival while Johnson works on The Fast and the Furious franchise continuation, Fast 8, revives Baywatch for movie theaters, and lend his voice to Disney’s animated movie Moana.

Shane Black’s Doc Savage will bring back the world’s original superhero for more adventure. Clark “Doc” Savage was Batman before there was a Batman, and was Superman before he ever came out in the comics, too. Clark “Doc” Savage is the background inspiration for many comic book heroes that have become famous over time. A peek into the original Doc Savage pulp fiction novels reveals much of what inspired early comic book creators. Doc Savage first arrived in 1933, a period in which many of the legendary comic book creators who founded DC and Marvel were likely reading pulps. Pulp fiction books like Doc Savage, and his predecessor The Shadow, are the types of stories that filled the heads of those who later went on to hold many roles in the comic book industry.

Doc Savage was also a property of Marvel in the 1980s, and a property of DC and other comic book companies, too. DC had Doc Savage appear in comic books all the way until just a few years ago. The 1975 Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze movie took the wrong path by following the trends of the time rather than setting them. As the Verge reports, Shane Black’s reboot, complete with Dwayne Johnson’s Doc Savage role, hopes to bring the character back to the 1930s and give old fans their due while getting new fans aware of an often copied character that they may have never known about.

Clark Kent and Clark Savage both share a first name. But that isn’t all. Savage is known as The Man of Bronze to Superman’s The Man of Steel. Doc also has a Fortress of Solitude, just like Superman does. In comparison to Batman, Savage is a resourceful inventor who invented something like Batman’s utility belt before Batman did. Like other superhero teams that are more familiar, Clark had his own group of five resourceful individuals who accompanied him on adventures. Each had their own specialty, though no one was wearing skin tight costumes nor looking like the immediately noticeable superheroes of today. Though they all had abilities, they were relatively low key. Doc also had a cousin who sometimes came with him on missions. Apparently, she was the only woman brave enough to be a part of his team.

Over the years in comic books, Doc has teamed up with the Fantastic Four’s The Thing, Batman, Black Canary, and even a collection of revived older pulp heroes that include The Shadow in DC’s popular pulp revival series, First Wave. Smaller comic book companies have also had success with Doc, including Millennium, Dark Horse, and Dynamite.

Shane Black can’t begin work on this highly anticipated film until he completes The Predator. His current movie, The Nice Guys, is in theaters now. Black is the celebrated action movie writer and now director famous for his work on Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Iron Man 3. As Den of Geek reports, many like the authentic relationships he builds between characters rather than just having shallow drama between action scenes. He also manages to write genius dialogue that rivals Quentin Tarantino and Joss Whedon. That’s why he is the director with the best chance of reviving Clark “Doc” Savage for a new era.

[Photo by Pool/Getty Images, Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures]

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