Ranxerox

Nice. Are we going to get to see Liberty too?

No arguments here. All welcomed suggestions for making a good Doc Savage movie ... but still have doubts about it making a profit.

The ruthless corporation that is misusing science seems like a rather modern trope for Doc Savage, and I have doubts that it will play any better with audiences than the criminal genius trope.

Well, there is something cool about the road not traveled science. This could THE dieselpunk move. Unfortunately, that distinction wouldn't sell many extra tickets and could inflate the special effects in big way. So maybe it best to leave that road not traveled not traveled. The recent DC Doc Savage comic did a very good job fleshing out and adding depth to the Fabulous Five. The movie could do worse than take cues from it for their portrayal. One of the problems I can see the movie Doc Savage running into, is the desire to give him a motivation. Doc Savage's reason work to improve the world and to fight evil isn't explained. At the time, I guess people didn't feel a need explain why a person would want stop the bad guys and help those in need. I'm think now the desire would be to explain it. Show how his Uncle Ben died because of his self-centered behavior or some such. I'm not sure whether audiences really demand this or not. I'm not sure that modern audiences will find good because the was raised to be that way very compelling. I may be wrong about this. I think operations to remove criminal tendencies might fit under Sundog's science that just doesn't work and as such something to be jettisoned. Yes, they were for the most part high ranking military men but are they defined their military service or by their maleness. In some cases I think the answer is yes and other cases these seem to me to be more incidental characteristics. YMMV.

I think it's possible. I tend to agree with Sundog. I also think that Pat Savage should play a bigger part in any film that gets made, and that a lot depends on the casting. I think the third one is right. I seem to recall that in the TV series when the Lone Ranger found himself in an unwinnable situation he didn't win. He took the loss, persevered and found a way make the rematch winnable. Your point about Pat Savage is a good one. Perhaps one of the Fabulous Five could be female as well. The notion that the best people in 5 different fields chosen in a sex blind manner would all be male isn't as natural an idea as it was back in the 1930s.

Well, there is something cool about the road not traveled science. This could THE dieselpunk move. Unfortunately, that distinction wouldn't sell many extra tickets and could inflate the special effects in big way. So maybe it best to leave that road not traveled not traveled. The recent DC Doc Savage comic did a very good job fleshing out and adding depth to the Fabulous Five. The movie could do worse than take cues from it for their portrayal. One of the problems I can see the movie Doc Savage running into, is the desire to give him a motivation. Doc Savage's reason work to improve the world and to fight evil isn't explained. At the time, I guess people didn't feel a need explain why a person would want stop the bad guys and help those in need. I'm think now the desire would be to explain it. Show how his Uncle Ben died because of his self-centered behavior or some such. I'm not sure whether audiences really demand this or not.

I liked it too. Unfortunately, not enough other people liked it for it not to lose money.

Robin goes down quick against Cap, and things go south for the Titans from there.

Me too! I had no idea that it was trying to be campy though. At the time, I took it for a serious action flick. Now, I'm scared to watch it again for fear of destroying good memories.

Somehow I can't imagine Johnny Depp playing the Man of Bronze. ;p

So what do you think needs to be jettisoned and what do you think is important to keep?

The key element that might potentially stop it from being successful that I'm worried about is just being too old fashion. Indiana Jones and the Mummy are good counter examples of films that had a pulpish feel to them but were still successful. However, they both combated their old-fashion sensibilities with humor. Doc Savage has never been funny. The Fabulous Five can be funny, and it would be nice to make the movie about them, but ultimately Clark Savage Junior is always the center of a Doc Savage story. This works against efforts to modernize things by adding irony. Yes, John Carter went way overboard on it's budget. It set itself up so that it needed to earn half a billion dollars just to break even. However, The Shadow and The Rocketeer were both made on what were at the time quite reasonable budgets. The Rocketeer even had a good script. Reasonable budgets and good scripts apparently aren't enough in and of themselves to save these films. Just because ensemble action films are a staple of Hollywood doesn't mean that the specific type of ensemble action movie that sells doesn't change over time. What is hot at the moment rules Hollywood just as much as it does the fashion industry. I'm pretty sure you can't make Doc Savage some post-modern, ironic action movie and still have it be a Doc Savage. So how do you make it the exception that proves the rule?

Iron Man 3 director, Shane Black, has announced he is going to make Doc Savage film. This news leaves me asking is it possible today to make a Doc Savage film that is both good and profitable? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trolling. I like pulp. I liked the recent John Carter movie and I like the TV series The Cape. However neither of those made money. The movie The Shadow and The Rocketeer also lost money. I suspect the new Lone Ranger movie will make money, but based on its trailer and comments made by its director, I have much less faith that it won't suck. Dreamworks which owns the movie rights to the Lone Ranger set certain rules using the Lone Ranger. The Lone Ranger must speak with perfect grammar, he can't kill anyone and he can't win against hopeless odds. Director Gore Verbinski see these rules as not things to be embraced but things to be gotten around. In the interview that I read of him, he was crowing about how by introducing an unreliable narrator he could skirt these restrictions. Not real inspiring. However, like I said the film will probably make money. However, can a pulp movie and more particularly a Doc Savage movie that respects its source material turn a profit? Or is the audience for such films too small to support the budget that is necessary to do one right? What do you think, pulp fans?

Cygnia, thank you for continuing to post these these links. I don't always completely agree with the bloggers, but I do appreciate getting to hear their stories and their points of view.

Dr. Impossible, originally a hero in the 1920s, has seen and done too many impossible things and is now quite mad ... or is he. In any event he is now going around killing people and claiming they are extra-dimensional lizard people even though their live histories, physiologies and DNA say differently. Dr. Impossible has the uber competence that was so common in pulp stories of the 20s and he has a host of gadgets that allow him to pretty much pick and choose the laws of physics that he wants to live by on a minute by minute basis. How he got from the 1920s to the present day is unexplained, but probably involved something completely impossible.

The video game No One Lives Forever had some truly great henchman dialogues. Sometimes while playing it I would postpone taking the henchman out or sneaking on past just so I could hear their whole speals. Here is one of the more memorable exchanges.

Make whatever power they use to hide their true nature be locked out by all their other powers, and give them distinctive features that are always noticed but only by a special sense.

At 99.5% of the speed of light a 100 light year journey would take a little over seven years from the point of view the people making the trip. That is still a long trip but for someone who could expect to live even a couple of centuries not too bad.

How about this look?

Having more than the standard compliment of limbs is a good excuse to buy some levels with HTH. After all, more arms means more arms to block with and more routes to attack by.

I have bee reading a web comic called Two Key that would make a good setting for an Urban Fantasy Hero campaign. So I'm giving it a shout out here. Two Key

Re: Sliders

Re: Swords and Sorcery Setting Your sword & sorcery movie link doesn't go where you meant it to.