Iron Man 3 co-writer/director Shane Black has '70s detective caper The Nice Guys due this year. But the filmmaker is also looking ahead to future passion projects, and has revealed that he's been seriously wanting Dwayne Johnson to take the lead in Doc Savage.
Black has been aboard the project since at least 2009, looking to adapt the iconic pulp character into a new big screen form. Raised from birth by scientists to be the perfect hero, Savage boasted a staggering number of skills, including scientist, inventor, physician and explorer. Among the most popular characters in 1930s and 40s pulps, Savage's stories were chronicled in nearly 200 novels and across radio, film and TV. Author Lester Dent was his most prolific writer, and it’s his books that Black and his team have been working from.
"Doc Savage is sort of in the ether now," Black tells Thrillist. "We're hoping to make it sometime next year. I would very much like to do Doc with a fellow named Dwayne Johnson if we can make that work. I made a decision that Dwayne is the guy. It's on the back burner while he's busy." If this does become official, we can expect to learn about it on Johnson's busy social media channels.
And then there's the Predator franchise, to which Black has a strong connection, having been cast in the original as part of a studio ploy to get him to punch up the script. That didn't work out, but now he's developing a new film to write and direct. So what's the latest? "They called me and I was reluctant. I said, 'Look. You guys at Fox, I mean, I enjoy these movies, but we've been churning out these AVP whatever, they each cost a certain amount of money, they're okay, but there's no effort to elevate them or make them any kind of an event.' They said, 'What if we said to you we want to reinvent this, and really treat it with as much of an event status, or as much hoopla as we would the Alien prequel, which is coming out also? We really want to make this something. The kind of movie that people line up for. I said, 'Really, you'll spend a bunch of money?' They go, 'yep.' I go, 'Make it really scale, spectacle?' 'Yep.' 'Shit, that sounds interesting.'
"I think the first one was great, and it was contained, and it was a perfect little gem for what it was," offers the director. "I think there's an expansion that needs to take place, and also just a love for that era, that movie, and the mythology of the Predator. I think that they came to me knowing pretty much that... they said, basically, if I wanted to make Predator but treat it like it was Iron Man 3 instead of just another little movie. I said, "Let's really do it right this time." You heard it here first: in this film, the Predator will tear off his mask to reveal that he was Ben Kingsley all along. Kidding...
There's no official release date for either film yet, but The Nice Guys will be out on June 3 and just released a new trailer.