Why we won’t be satisfied with pulp movies

I’ve seen the best pulp-based movie ever. And it will be hard — no, almost impossible — for Hollywood to top it.

In fact, I’ve seen scores of great pulp movies. Just not at the theater or on TV.

Each time I pick up a pulp reprint or collection and start reading, a movie starts.

I can see The Shadow silently gliding along a darkened New York City street, trailing a unknowing thug to his hideout. I can see Curtis Newton, aka Captain Future, talking over plans with Otho the synthetic man, Grag the robot and the Living Brain in his serum-case as the Comet streaks across the solar system.

When I’m reading, the action comes to life in my mind’s eye, just as it does for you.

But what plays on the screen in my mind is not what plays on the screen in yours. And it is not what plays in the mind’s eyes of the producers, director or screenwriters of movies based on The Shadow, Doc Savage, John Carter of Mars or other pulp characters. And eventually, it certainly won’t be what plays on the screen down at your neighborhood cinema.

The filmmakers aren’t making those movies for us, the pulp fans. They are making them for the average moviegoer, which according to the Motion Picture Association of America are those 12- to 24-years-old. They accounted for almost half of movie audiences last year.

That’s probably the same target age group for the pulps back in their heyday. But the nature of entertainment has change substantially since then. What readers expected from their pulps back then is completely different from what moviegoers expect from their movies these days.

Though in my mind I can visualize the elements of what would make, say, a fantastic Doc Savage movie based on the novels I have read, I fear that the filmmakers feel more obligation to make what would be a fantastic Doc Savage movie for someone who isn’t familiar with the character in the pulps.

Here’s hoping I am wrong about this. But Hollywood’s track record indicates otherwise. Sure, a new Doc Savage or The Shadow movie may be a hit, but it won’t be a pulp movie, at least not like the ones I’ve already visualized.

– William