I thought I would pass along this posting from Tahir Bhatti about a potential Doc Savage movie:
It has been 11 months since I last made contact with Jerry, a Conde Nast lawyer in charge of the copyrights to Doc Savage. Let me go back and provide some background for this post.
Over a year ago Mary, a long-time Doc fan, sent me a copy of a letter she got from this same lawyer. They could not grant her permission for making a Doc product as Conde Nast told her they were close to making a deal for a new Doc movie and they could not allow third parties to make Doc items as there would be a merchandising component to the new movie.
As the letter had Jerry’s e-mail, I decided to see what would happen with an e-mail query for more specifics about this possible movie. This was his reply back in October of 2005:
“The only thing I can tell you at this time is that we have excellent producer and a top notch director interested in doing a new Doc Savage movie, and that we are in serious discussions with a major studio for rights to the film. At this point I cannot say more, but we are very hopeful of concluding a deal in the near future. Thank you for your interest. Hopefully soon I can tell you more.”
After I posted this other members of this group told me that this was not the standard or typical response from the Conde Nast lawyers in charge of Doc Savage.
Just yesterday I decided to send Jerry another e-mail to see if anything has transpired on the Doc Savage movie front. He promptly sent me this e-mail back today:
“Dear Mr. Bhatti:
“I am pleased to tell you that the movie rights have been licensed to a major studio, as referred to below (this referring the last e-mail he had sent, which is written above). I cannot provide any more detail at this time, but we are very excited.
“Jerry”
It may be moving at a snails pace, but the rights have been licensed. Now we as Doc fans have to do some digging to see if we have any contacts to learn what studio got the rights and who is the director, producer, etc?
If any one has any clues or leads, please speak up.
Thanks, Tahir
He posted it on the FleaRun and alt.fan.doc-savage newsgroup. Tahir’s posting has generated quite a bit of discussion on the FleaRun.
Howard Hopkins posted this follow-up on GoldenPerils:
I was told The Avenger rights sold as well (and of course The Shadow), so I hope something will come of that movie soon!
– Howard
I’ve always thought that The Avenger would be a great movie character, and could prove to be a hit if done right. The whole “revenge” tale is very popular in action movies, and the twist of a white-haired, putty-faced hero could be a real hook.
– William
Aintitcool.com and IGN.com are reporting that Sam Raimi snatched up the rights to the Street & Smith catalogue, and is interested in making some sort of amalgam giant crossover pulp film. That part leaves me skeptical, but I do know that Raimi was desperate to make a Shadow flick before Mulcahy beat him to it. After the Spider-Man flicks, he’s got enough clout to make it, too.
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