Photo Credit: Marvel Studios
Iron Man 3 director Shane Black still really wants to make a Doc Savage movie someday.
After working on the scripts for movies such as 1987’s Lethal Weapon, 1993’s Last Action Hero, and more, Black made his feature film directorial debut in 2005 with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He followed that up with 2013’s Iron Man 3, 2016’s The Nice Guys, 2018’s The Predator, and, most recently, 2025’s Play Dirty.
Over ten years ago, Black closed a deal with Sony Pictures to make a Doc Savage movie. Dwayne Johnson was attached to star as the titular character in the film for a time; however, it ultimately never came to fruition.
What did Iron Man 3’s Shane Black say about his Doc Savage movie?
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Black said he’d still love to get the opportunity to make a Doc Savage film at some point in the future.
“I’ve always loved Doc Savage. It’s based on ‘30s pulp, and he was the OG superhero. His name was Clark [Savage Jr.], and he was literally described as a ‘super man.’ So the first Doc Savage [in 1933] was before Clark Kent/Superman [in 1938]. He was the inspiration behind a generation of comic books and pulps and wonderful shit. So I would love, at some point, to revisit that,” Black explained. “The problem is that the IP is not a household name. It’s much easier to fund something at that level of expense if it has Batman or Superman attached, as opposed to something that is going to be just as expensive and is less of a household name.”
When asked if he had any thoughts about who he’d cast as Doc Savage, given that Johnson seems to be done with the superhero genre for the time being, Black said, “I don’t know. The problem is that it has to be someone that you can approach a studio with and say, ‘It’s going to be $150 million. Minimum.’ Doc Savage is about an entire world of adventure, and it’s a ‘30s period piece. I wouldn’t want to modernize it. So, yeah, I would look into finding a way to do that, but I still don’t have an actor in mind. It would have to be someone compelling enough to get the studio to loosen up those purse strings for us.”
