The Rock is the New Doc: Dwayne Johnson to Play DOC SAVAGE
Dwayne Johnson, already set to play Black Adam in the upcoming Shazam film at New Line Cinema, has announced another superhero-ish character going on his resume: Doc Savage.
Posting on his Instagram account, Johnson confirmed that he will take on the pulp action hero in Shane Black’s new adaptation for Sony Pictures. Black will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry. Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions will also be involved.
Doc Savage was created by Street & Smith Publications publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic, first appearing in Doc Savage Magazine in March 1933. Also known as “The Man of Bronze”, Savage is a world-traveling adventurer. Following in the footsteps of Street & Smith’s other pulp hero, The Shadow, Doc Savage not only got his own pulp magazine, but appeared in other media as well — radio, comic books, and film — and his adventures were re-printed as Bantam paperback books starting in 1964.
Clark Savage, Jr. had no superpowers, but instead was a super-intelligent near-perfect human being — scientist, inventor, explorer, doctor, and musician. Trained from birth by a team of scientists, his mind and body are near superhuman levels. And like The Lone Ranger, Savage also had a credo:
“Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.”
With his highly-skilled “Fabulous Five” — his team of fellow adventurers — Savage makes his headquarters on the 86th floor of a New York City skyscraper and has all manner of technology at his disposal, as well as a “Fortress of Solitude” in the Arctic, pre-dating Superman’s own namesake getaway.
Black has stated that he intends to keep the story set in the 1930s, playing up the idea that Doc Savage is the “World’s First Superhero”. He’s been attached to the project since 2013, and will be moving forward with production after his reboot of Predator.
