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Daniel Argent had an
Interview with Frank Darabont, who also talked about Arnold's upcomming film:
What's happening with DOC SAVAGE?
We're developing a script. We have a young writer, David Johnson, who is a very talented
young writer. Up until a month ago, David was my assistant [for the past five years]. And
he and his friend, Brett Hill, had this notion of DOC SAVAGE as a feature. I forget who
exactly put two and two together, whether it was those guys or whether it was me, but at
some point it dawned on somebody that it would be a perfect thing for Arnold
Schwarzenegger [who is attached to star as Doc]. The fact that Arnold and I are friends
helped the situation. So I called in my buddy, Chuck [Russell, who co-wrote and directed
Darabont's NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3, and later directed THE MASK], who is the pop culture
genius that he is. And I said, "Well, let's produce this together. As you know,
Chuck, I am only known for 'star-driven dramas.' We need somebody who understands good,
big adventure action pictures." I'm only being facetious to a point there.
Chuck has a great knack for [those big pictures]. You need only watch THE MASK again to
see Chuck's sensibilities best on display. He is the master of what I call the Big Wacky.
If a movie needs a big wacky, Chuck will come up with it, whatever the big wacky needs to
be. So we pitched DOC to Castle Rock, and took it to Arnold, and Arnold was enthusiastic
and here we are. Hopefully, there will be a resulting movie. It would be a great franchise
for Schwarzenegger. Great, pulpy action-adventure stuff, without the edge of hard
violence. We've had enough of that for the moment, thank you. Arnold would be perfect as
that larger-than-life hero. He's proven he can do that. A few times [laughs]. In case
there's any doubt, he's pretty much got that quality proven.
And it'll be great to see Doc realized on screen.
It's an era that I love. Pre-war America, in a way that never quite existed, but ought to
have, with Doc Savage, the millionaire philanthropist/inventor/warrior/scientist and all
the crazy inventions. I believe that BUCKAROO BANZAI always owed a bit to Doc Savage. A
number of screen heroes through the years have owed Doc Savage. And the one chance they
ever had to make the movie, they blew it. Even at the age of twelve, I thought the movie
[DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE] sucked. Which broke my heart, because I was always a big, big
admirer and fan of George Pal [Pal received writing credit on DOC SAVAGE.]. And it was so
sad that DOC SAVAGE was the last movie he was given to make. I have a feeling that there
had to be some meddling there, because Pal was a much smarter filmmaker than that movie
would indicate. But he made some great pictures. Seminal stuff that I grew up loving. I do
love the genre. I love the science fiction and the horror stuff, the good stuff.
It is a great stage from which to explore, if you're going use it as a stage, as opposed
to an excuse for a shoot-'em-up, which tends to be the kind of science fiction movies that
have been made in the last so many years. Basically, gun movies with SF trappings. Who
cares. There have been a few very interesting and provocative SF films that have cropped
up in recent memory, like Gattaca. But those are few and far between, unfortunately.
Full Interview |
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