Shane Black Has Met With Chris Hemsworth About DOC SAVAGE

Following on the heels of Iron Man 3, writer/director Shane Black has suddenly found himself in high demand. Just today we learned that he will be overseeing the rebooting of the Predator franchise for 20th Century Fox while it looks like his 1970s crime film The Nice Guys which Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe have been circling could be shooting by year’s end. But the project that I am most interested in his plan to bring the classic 1930s and 40s pulp hero Doc Savage to the big screen.

Embarrassingly, I have to admit that in my first read through of the Hollywood Reporter story about Black taking on the Predator franchise that I missed a little nugget down towards the bottom in regards to the status of the Doc Savage film –

[Black] recently met with Chris Hemsworth for the title role, but it’s unclear when that project would shoot since it’s still grappling with budgetary issues. Sony, however, does consider Savage one of its priorities.

Personally, Hemsworth seems like a solid choice and the role could conceivably give the actor another franchise character to play that would in part be dependent on his physicality but would be a markedly different role than his work as Thor in Marvel Studios’ superhero films.

Previously, Doc has been played on the screen by Ron Ely in producer George Pal’s 1975 Doc Savage: Man Of Bronze. He did a good job in bringing the character to life although the film was plagued with a screenplay that went overboard into camp.