Dwayne “The Doc” Johnson

Tuesday, May 31st, 2016

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson just announced that he will be playing Doc Savage:

For all comic book fans you already know the world’s first superhero (pre-dating Superman) is the “Man of Bronze” himself Clark “Doc” Savage.

Want to thank my bud director/writer Shane Black and his writing team Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry for flying in from LA and sitting with me and our @sevenbucksprod’s producer @hhgarcia41 on this Memorial Day weekend to chop up creative and break story on this very cool project.

Comic book fans around the world know that the cool thing about “Doc” Savage is that he’s the inspiration for Superman. First name Clark, called “Man of Bronze”, retreats to his “Fortress of Solitude” in the Arctic etc etc.

Doc was physically and mentally trained from birth by his father and a team of scientists to become the perfect human specimen with a genius level intellect. His heightened senses are beyond comprehension. He can even identify a women’s perfume from half a mile away. He is literally the master of everything.

But here’s the #1 reason I’m excited to become Doc Savage.. HE’S A F*CKING HILARIOUS WEIRDO!

Confidently, yet innocently he has zero social graces whatsoever due to his upbringing so every interaction he has with someone is direct, odd, often uncomfortable and amazingly hilarious.

After speaking for hours w/ Shane Black I can see why the creator of Superman took only the best parts of Doc Savage and leaving the “weirdo” part behind. But to us, it’s that “weirdo” part that makes Clark “Doc” Savage dope! Can’t wait to sink my teeth into this one of a kind character.

The Rock doesn’t actually resemble the classic 1930s cover art depicting the character:

Doc Savage 1933

But he does resemble the 1970s cover art by James Bama (of Steve Holland):

Doc Savage 1970s

The character went on to inspire Superman but was itself inspired by The Savage Gentleman.

Posted in Media | 3 Comments »

Comments

  1. Gaikokumaniakku says:
    June 1, 2016 at 9:12 am

    Underrated post!

    I have been a pulp fiction fan for decades now.

    Some other guy wrote a pretty good summary of early 20th century pulp, including Doc Savage.

    I still haven’t gotten around to reading The Savage Gentleman yet. It’s getting so that I scarcely have time to watch TV any more, much less read fiction.

    I have been reading Gibbon’s Decline and Fall. It’s almost fiction. It’s history written as an adventure story.

  2. Isegoria says:
    June 1, 2016 at 1:30 pm

    If you want history written as an adventure story, order The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, right now. As I say in Books That Have Influenced Me:

    I picked up this first-hand account of the Spanish expedition that toppled the Aztec empire because Diamond had mentioned it in Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I was not disappointed. My primary take-away was this: Why didn’t we read this in school? Real history is nothing like school history. Oddly, real history is more like a swords-and-sorcery novel: evil priests, hair matted with blood, commit human sacrifices atop pyramids amidst a city built on a lake inside a volcanic crater; frenzied fighting ensues.

  3. Gaikokumaniakku says:
    June 2, 2016 at 3:02 pm

    Whoops. I think I received the wrong book. I got a book about Peru. It’s still pretty poetic, though:

    And when Salomon embellished the temple with vessels and riches, a lot was spent for it. Aside from all this, we know that in the Levant there are regions rich in gold and silver. But none of these things can equal or compare to [the wealth] of Peru because counting what was in Cajamarca when the ransom [was collected] for Atahualpa, and what was later divided in Jauja and in Cuzco, and what else there was in the kingdom, it is such a great sum that I, although I could, do not dare to state it. But if one wanted to build another temple with it, it would be more opulent than the one of Cuzco and as none that has existed in the world. All that had been taken from Peru is nothing compared with what is lost in the land, buried in tombs of kings and of caciques and in the temples. The Indians themselves know it and acknowledge it.

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