Good Idea or Bad? Looking at various sci fi and fantasy television projects currently in the works and pondering whether it will fly or crash.
What Is the Show About? Sony Pictures Television is partnering with Condé Nast Entertainment to produce a television series based on the pulp hero Doc Savage. Deadline Hollywood gives the follow description for the project:
The scripted series will chronicle his adventures, featuring rampaging dinosaurs, secret societies led by dastardly villains, fantastic gadgets and weapons, death-dealing traps, hair-raising escapes, and plots to rule the earth.
Doc Savage is a classic action/adventure pulp hero first introduced by Street & Smith in the 1930’s and he would go on to appear in comics, radio serials, and also on the big screen. Savage is a renaissance man who is a highly skilled scientist, adventurer, detective, inventor, explorer, doctor and more. He has also honed his physical abilities to near superhuman levels. He is often accompanied in his adventures by the “Fabulous Five” who are each highly skilled in their respective professions.
What Is in the Works? Sony has acquired the rights to the property and was previously working on a feature film that would have starred Dwayne Johnson. Those plans were put on hold and now a television series is being ramped up. This project is early in the development process with no premiere date targeted at the moment and no network currently attached.
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Good Idea or Bad? Not only is this a good idea, it is an excellent idea that needs to happen! Doc Savage has plenty of source material to draw on across the pulps and novels as well as some of the comic book adaptations. This would be best as a retro-sci fi series that draws heavily on the spirit of the adventure tales from the 30’s and 40’s (which sounds like the direction they will take based on the synopsis above), but there are any of a number of ways to approach the property.
A dark re-imaging would probably not be the best way to go, because we have more than enough of that among the current crop of sci fi TV entries. But if done right, it could still work. Doc Savage brings name-recognition and plenty of backstory, and the show could carry on for years without running out of steam if they handle it correctly. This is a show that I am truly excited about and will definitely be checking out once it finally arrives on television.
Notable Facts: The character, who is also known as The Man of Bronze, first appeared in Doc Savage Magazine #1 which was published by Street & Smith and had a cover date of March 1933. That pulp ran for 181 issues and the stories were later be collected in a series of novels that Bantam Books started releasing in the 1960’s. Doc Savage Comics debuted in 1940, though that version of the character would start to diverge notably from the pulp hero. The feature film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze was released in 1975, produced by George Pal and starring Ron Ely. The character would continue in comics starting with a Marvel series in the 1970’s and later shifting to DC, Dark Horse, and Dynamite. The “Fabulous Five” consists of Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett “Monk” Mayfair (industrial chemist), Brigadier General Theodore Marley “Ham” Brooks (attorney), Colonel John “Renny” Renwick (construction engineer), Major Thomas J. “Long Tom” Roberts (electrical engineer), and William Harper “Johnny” Littlejohn (archaeologist / geologist).
Do you think that a Doc Savage TV series would be a good idea or bad? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments.
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