-

It’s been five years since one of Hollywood’s most influential pioneers of the action screenplay, Shane Black, stepped behind the camera for his critically-praised directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Now Black may be settling back into the director’s chair in order to revive the long-dead silver screen legacy of classic adventure hero Doc Savage.

Doc Savage was created in the early 1930′s by Street and Smith Publications and predominantly written by main author Lester Dent. He’s an adventure hero, most popular in the “pulp novels” of the 30′s and 40′s. Savage is a man trained from birth in all of the greatest skills of science, deduction, and physical prowess, all of which he uses to solve mysteries and fight crime.

The character has appeared in only one successful film adaptation, 1975′s bemoaned camp-fest, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, starring former Tarzan, Ron Ely.

In October of last year, Black told Ain’t It Cool News that he was hard at work scripting a Doc Savage movie for hotshot producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman of Star Trek and Transformers fame, and that his film would  definitely be set during Savage’s heyday of the 30′s, and would include his ever-present team of sidekicks, The Fabulous Five. However, the property recently changed hands over to Sony, who have brought in screenwriters Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry to co-write the feature with no word yet on how much of Black’s original, self-written screenplay will be retained.

Doc Savage has been enjoying a minor resurgence of popularity recently, as DC Comics has begun releasing a mini-series that links Savage to Batman, and that will expand into an ongoing series for the character soon.

Sony hopes to shoot for a 2011 release for the film under their Columbia Pictures banner.

So what do you think? Can a Depression-era action hero find a modern movie audience? Can Shane Black pull it off? And who would you like to see portraying The Man of Bronze?

Previously seen on Atomic Popcorn