The Rocketeer is one of those movies that found itself sputtering at the box office upon its original 1991 release, but has gone on to be thought of fondly, enjoying cult status and in healthy rotation as a cosplay concept. Now Disney is hoping that translates into success for a reboot/sequel (sequoot?), in development at the studio.
While the movie is still in early development, the Hollywood Reporter has heard that it will re-imagine the character as a black female hero who dons the rocket pack and suit to fight evil. Joe Johnston's original was adapted from Dave Stevens' 1980s comic by Danny Bilson, William Dear and Paul De Meo and starred Billy Campbell as Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who stumbles across an experimental jet pack and gear and gets mixed up with mobsters, Nazis, Howard Hughes and the FBI. Designed as a throwback to the serials of the 1930s and '40s in the same way that Flash Gordon channelled the genre (perhaps with a smidge less camp), The Rocketeer has long since been boosted into a life of its own, turning it into prime target and an arrow aimed straight at nostalgia.
In the new concept, the story will keep the period setting, but six years after the original film. Secord has vanished while battling Nazis and a new hero, a young, African-American pilot, must take up the Rocketeer mantle to stop an ambitious rocket scientist from stealing the jet pack technology and changing the course of what will become the Cold War. Max Winkler and Matt Spicer are aboard to write the movie, currently known as The Rocketeers.
Disney has yet to release any sort of official statement, nor is there a release set, but if done right, it could introduce a whole new generation to the idea of high-flying adventure and heroics.