Dwayne Johnson attached to remake.
Honestly, Tom Hopper (Umbrella Academy) wouldn't be bad either.
shareI first saw some reference to this a couple of years ago, and was dismayed to hear that Johnson's initial take, when they presented the story to him, was that Doc Savage was a clueless, socially inept "freak" - and he seemed to think that the film, if he made it, would be a comedy and that he would be playing the role for laughs.
Physically, I think he'd be great, and Johnson's box office appeal would certainly do wonders for Doc's public profile; but if a new Doc Savage movie is, in fact, going to end up irreparably damaging the (especially younger) moviegoers' opinion of the character - as has recently been done with such classic heroes as The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet - by making him the object of ridicule, I'd much prefer that it not be made at all.
Given the current political climate, it's either he'll be blackwashed, or femwashed, or he'll stay a white male but they'll ridicule him. Those are the options right now, in a nutshell.
It doesn't work well, and modern Hollywood-Netflix-BBC-etcetera keep jumping from franchise to franchise, burning each and every one of them. But they still have quite a few franchises to buy and burn.
Agreed. I get that contemporary audiences often find the pure, selfless heroes of the past ridiculous & enjoy mocking them -- and certainly they're not "realistic" characters -- but that four-square, idealized nature is precisely what makes them so appealing. A decent hero who abides by a moral code doesn't have to be boring; he can also have wit, style, charm, while still doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing. While I appreciate films about morally ambiguous & complex characters as well, sometimes that basic "unrealistic" decency is just what I want.
shareI agree whole heartedly with you.
shareYeah, they are ruining our classic heroes by turning them into bumbling comedy relief.
shareOne example of a modern film that DIDN'T go in that direction is the 1996 production of 'The Phantom' with Billy Zane - a film I love, and I wish they'd made sequels. It was my privilege to meet the Phantom's creator Lee Falk not long after, and he was very pleased with how it turned out and with how his brainchild was treated. That's the sort of treatment that Doc Savage SHOULD have gotten in the Ely film. (The Alec Baldwin 'Shadow' movie wasn't bad in that regard, either.)
I remember reading an article sometime after the release of the Doc Savage movie, possibly in Starlog, with a title something like "The Doc Savage Movie - What Went Wrong?", which attributed the film's somewhat campy style to a last minute panic attack on producer George Pal's part; the story presented was that Pal was afraid a straighter, more serious movie would be a tremendous bomb, so he insisted on those elements - like the silly, Souza-esque theme song - that would let everyone know that it was all in fun.
I guess that ultimately what I really don't understand is, what audience are the producers shooting for when they do this to the classic heroes? (And, sorry, guys, I don't buy into the whole "They're ridiculing these people for being straight White males" meme. Tons of movies and t.v. shows are released every year where the heroes are straight White males, so it isn't that.) The people who came to love characters like Doc, The Lone Ranger, and so on decades ago obviously aren't interested in seeing their heroes diminished or ridiculed, and the younger folks do not, for the most part, even know who they are.
It just occurred to me that there is one classic hero who HASN'T, in recent years, gotten the ill treatment afforded Doc or the Ranger or the Hornet - and God, don't get me started on 'Holmes and Watson' - and that is Tarzan. For some reason the Lord of the Jungle gets a pass and always seems to be treated with the awe and respect due him.
I agree with you. The primary force behind this diminishment of classic heroes is a sort of shallow, glib snarkiness that believes it's actually sophisticated, as if nobody could possibly believe in old-fashioned heroes who are basically modest, not glory-seeking, not delivering constant one-liners, not reveling in violence for its own sake.
I mean, we all know that the world is complex & ambiguous, that morality often has shades of grey, that even real-life heroes can have personal failings. But I don't think it's a bad thing to have ideals embodied in fictional heroes who stand for what's best in us, if only to remind us that those ideals are worth living up to, as best we can.
And, sorry, guys, I don't buy into the whole "They're ridiculing these people for being straight White males" meme. Tons of movies and t.v. shows are released every year where the heroes are straight White males, so it isn't that
All those movies have a very small set of actors. It's about Tom Cruise, Jason Statham, Keanu Reaves, Dwaine Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, Brad Pitt and a couple more. Those guys are mostly in their 50s, they built their career more than a decade ago and most of them produce their own movies. In a nutshell, they're the remains of the old Hollywood.
How many barely known or non popular white male actors have you seen cast that don't look like psychopaths or like cucks, let's say, in the last three years in Hollywood movies? share
Um...not entirely sure I understand your question. How many "barely known or non popular white male actors" have been cast lately in Hollywood movies? If they're cast in a lead role in a Hollywood movie, they immediately don't qualify as being "barely known or non popular", do they? Edward Norton, Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds, Alexander Skarsgard, Christian Bale, Leonardo Decaprio, Charlie Hunnam...to name a few off the top of my head who've worked their way up from minor roles to getting the big roles in major productions. Are you upset because unknown White male actors aren't being hired to star in hundred million dollar blockbusters? What actor of ANY color is?
Not meant as a reflection or comment on anyone involved in THIS discussion, but I always marvel at the cluelessness of the forum poster who goes on and on in the greatest of detail about how bad the movies are these days, but when they're asked what movies they've seen lately they respond that they haven't been to a movie in years.
"...(And, sorry, guys, I don't buy into the whole "They're ridiculing these people for being straight White males" meme. Tons of movies and t.v. shows are released every year where the heroes are straight White males, so it isn't that.)"
Stop making sense, you're crazy. And you're right about Tarzan. Even the 2016 movie with the Northman took itself pretty seriously. And I love the Phantom;such an underrrated movie.