Dwayne Johnson To Play ‘Doc Savage’ For Director Shane Black
How did Dwayne Johnson spend this Memorial Day weekend? In a huddle with Shane Black and his writing team and producers “to chop up creative and break story on this very cool project.” The project is Doc Savage, a big-screen adaptation of the 1930s and 40s pulp novel hero aka The Man of Bronze. Johnson confirmed his attachment on his Instagram account, saying, “It’s OFFICIAL: For all comic book fans you already know the world’s first superhero (pre-dating Superman) is the ‘Man of Bronze’ himself Clark ‘Doc’ Savage.
“Want to thank my bud director/writer Shane Black and his writing team Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry for flying in from LA and sitting with me and our @sevenbucksprod’s producer @hhgarcia41 on this Memorial Day weekend to chop up creative and break story on this very cool project.”
For Johnson, the No. 1 reason he’s excited to become Doc Savage is, “He’s a F***ing Hilarious Weirdo!”
First debuting in 1933, Savage, otherwise known as Clark Savage, Jr., was inspired by (and created to be a semi-combination of) notable literary and pulp heroes such as Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan. The adventuring polymath was trained from early childhood to be at peak physical condition and is blessed with genius level intellect and an eidetic memory, abilities he uses to right wrongs and correct injustice wherever he happens to encounter them. Along with characters like The Shadow (1930), Dick Tracy (1931), Conan the Barbarian (1932), The Lone Ranger and Tonto (1933), and Green hornet and Kato (1936), Doc Savage was part of the later pulp genre that directly inspired the comic book superhero genre which emerged in the late 1930s.
Sony closed a deal with Black to co-write and direct Doc Savage back in 2013. He co-wrote the screenplay with Bagarozzi and Mondry. Johnson will produce via his Seven Bucks Productions with Hiram Garcia.
Black is coming off of The Nice Guys with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling which is currently in release following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. He’s got The Predator lined up at Fox for a February 2018 release. Johnson is up next in Central Intelligence with Kevin Hart, set to hit screens JUne 17. He follows that up with Disney’s animated Moana on November 23, and returns as Hobbs in Fast 8 next April, followed by the Baywatch adaptation in May, 2017.
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