Doc Savage - The Man of Bronze(1975)
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Wednesday July 7
Schwarzenegger Pumps Up Pulp Hero
By Benedict Carver
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played a villain in his last big screen outing, 1997's ``Batman & Robin,'' is set to flex his muscles as pulp magazine superhero Dr. Clark Savage Jr. He will star in "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze," which revolves around a millionaire philanthropist turned superman. The character, the brainchild of pulp author Lester Dent, debuted in Doc Savage Magazine in 1933. He has remained in the public eye since then due to a series of books by Bantam. The doctor also has a strong cult following on the Internet. Chuck Russell, who directed Schwarzenegger in 1996's ''Eraser,'' will share producing and directing chores on the Warner Bros./Universal Pictures project with Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption"). It's unclear whether they will literally co-direct the film, or split the producing and directing duties between them. "Frank and Chuck go back a long way, and the two of them brought the project to Arnold, and then the three of them came to us," said Castle Rock president Martin Shafer, whose company will produce the project.
Warner Bros. turned Savage into a campy, critically panned feature, "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze," in 1975, with the tagline "Have no fear, Doc Savage is here!" In that production, directed by Michael Anderson, Doc Savage and his cohorts flew down to South America to avenge the death of Doc's father.
Darabont and Russell are developing a completely new story for their film, together with screenwriter David Leslie Johnson, based on a separate story by Johnson and Brett Hill. There's no script yet, although Johnson and Hill did write an 80-page treatment. Story details were unknown.
Film rights to "Savage" eventually ended up with publishing house Conde-Nast, and it took the film-makers and Castle Rock a good while to extricate them.
In addition to best picture Oscar nominee "The Shawshank Redemption," Darabont directed the Tom Hanks-starrer ``The Green Mile'' for Castle Rock, which will be released in the U.S. by Warners on Dec. 17.
Russell's other directing credits include "The Mask" and the upcoming thriller "Bless This Child" for Paramount. Universal, meanwhile, will release the supernatural Schwarzenegger vehicle "End of Days" in the U.S. on Nov. 24.
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Wednesday July 07
Arnold Does "Doc Savage"
Talk about your typecasting: Super rich strongman Arnold Schwarzenegger has been tapped to play super rich strongman Doc Savage in a just-announced new film.
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze will put Schwarzenegger in the role of the classic character many consider America's first superhero. Equal parts Superman and James Bond (but predating both), Dr. Clark Savage Jr. was created in the 1930s by Lester Dent (writing under the the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson) and went on to star in hundreds of hugely popular pulp novels, comics and magazines.
A gadget-loving, globe-hopping, physically imposing physician with money to burn (thanks to a stockpile of Mayan gold tucked away in remote South America), Savage owes his "Man of Bronze" sobriquet to an epidermis "kilned by tropical suns and arctic winds" to a hue George Hamilton would envy. Along with his sidekicks, a group of eccentric braniacs dubbed the Fabulous Five, he regularly dispatched bad guys intent on world domination/destruction.
Doc Savage will be coproduced and codirected by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) and Chuck Russell (Eraser, The Mask) for Castle Rock Entertainment. Warner Bros. and Universal are splitting distribution duties. No shooting schedule has been announced.
Schwarzenegger, who just wrapped End of Days, a supernatural thriller pitting him against Satan that's due out November 24, is an old pro at playing comic-book types like Conan the Barbarian and Batman nemesis Mr. Freeze (Batman & Robin).
Arnold's flick, which Castle Rock is hoping to turn into a multi-film, 007-like franchise, is the second screen version of the pulp hero. TV Tarzan Ron Ely starred as the super surgeon in the campy 1975 stinker also called Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze.
Note: those of you born after 1970 may not be aware what the above article means by "TV Tarzan." Ron Ely starred in a tv series based closer to the Tarzan books than most of the movies have been. Sadly, no videotapes of Ron Ely's Tarzan are available. For a list of Tarzan movies that are, click below.
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