‘Thor’ trading Asgard for Fortress of Solitude?

So director Shane Black is making a Doc Savage movie, based on the pulp magazine hero, as his follow-up to “Iron Man 3.”

That’s enough to have old fans of Clark Savage pretty happy. And we already knew that.

But who could conceivably play the bred-from-birth-to-be-perfect Savage, a towering man of action and intellect?

It’s all over the web already, but an interviewer asked Black about “Thor” and “Avengers” and “Rush” actor Chris Hemsworth.

“Not a bad idea,” Black replied.

Really not a bad idea at all.

Hemsworth is already about as tall as Doc. He’s got the physique and the features. He can pull off the longish hair if Black decides to go with something other than the James Bama skullcap look for Doc.

And I think he’d be totally suitable as the prototype for later comic book characters like Superman.

It probably won’t happen … but maybe it should.

 

Shane Black to make ‘Doc Savage’ movie

So news broke today – a couple of days after director Shane Black’s “Iron Man 3” set some pretty impressive box office records – that Black would make a “Doc Savage” movie, perhaps as his next feature.

Readers of this blog know that “Doc Savage” – a pulp magazine and comic book adventurer – is a favorite character of mine. That’s in part because he’s so impossibly cool – a super-smart, super-strong crime fighter who got that way because, like Batman, he worked hard to become what he became – and in part because Doc established so many pop culture touchstones.

He was named Clark before that Kent guy. He had a Fortress of Solitude before Superman. He was a scientific detective who tried to not kill before Batman.

And he had the Fabulous Five, a cool group of associates that were sidekicks before anybody knew what sidekicks were.

I grew to know Doc from the reissued stories that came out in paperback in the 1960s and 1970s, featuring great James Bama cover art.

There’s lots about Doc out there, including plenty of entries – including some on my blog – about the character, the pulps and the awful first “Doc Savage” movie released in the 1970s.

I hope you get to know Doc and are ready when Black brings him back onto the big screen. I’m already ready.