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Shane Black doing The Destroyer??
chrisisall
Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
http://deadline.com/2014/08/sony-pictures-taps-iron-man-3-helmer-shane-black-to-direct-the-destroyer-822866/
“Shane has been a fan of the original Destroyer book series since its inception and he has an incredible vision for this film,”
@timmer, this is for YOU, my friend!
“Shane has been a fan of the original Destroyer book series since its inception and he has an incredible vision for this film,”
@timmer, this is for YOU, my friend!
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Edit: this is awesome.
"Black is attached to co-write and direct Doc Savage for Sony, but his collaborators feel he has an ideal take for Remo Williams, the rough and tumble character who first surfaced in the 1985 movie that starred Fred Ward (The Right Stuff astronaut who opened the hatch too early and sunk his spacecraft). "
"An ideal take for Remo Williams" And Black's read the original books. That is the key to Destroyer. One has to have read a chunk of the original run of books to appreciate the awesome magificence of the House of Sinanju - the world's most lethal line of professional assassins, for which there are only two living at any given time in history- the Master and his apprentice ie Chiun and Remo. And Remo, if you know the Sinanju legends and prophecies, is the Dead Night Tiger, the avatar of Shiva, the Destroyer God, destined to be the most powerful Master of them all.
Remo btw is not "rough and tumble". He doesn't brawl. He takes you out with a deft, barely visible jab, whilst effortlessly sidestepping flying bullets, all the while dealing with Chiun's constant carping about his form. Remo is Sinanju.
Black would probably be politic enough to consult the series orignator Warren Murphy and his designated protege, Jim Mullaney, too.
With the film tech that exists now, wonders could be done putting Sinanju on screen. The filmmakers were somewhat limited in 1985. Movie Remo wasn't quite as lethal as book Remo, although they did a decent job with Chiun I thought, and even Remo was pretty deadly by movie's end.
If Black has read the books, he could work it all in, the humour, Sinanju lore, girls galore, the pivotal Remo-Chiun relationship along with the action, adventure and violence.
Much 21st filmaking potential here.
And again, as I would like to see with the next Bond, cast Remo young ie 20 something and let him age in the role. Bond btw I would like to see cast as 29-32ish. Remo though could be cast as young as 21 with the right actor. Until Chiun got a hold of him he was young and brash anyway.
The series on film would make for great edgy camp fare and escapist adventure, like classic Bond. The authors delved regularly into the fantasical, and unabashedly ripped off Bond with books like Dr. Quake and other supervillains, with wild world domination schemes.
One of Warren Murphy's biggest boast/gripes is that James Cameron's Terminator is a direct lift from Destroyer's Mr.Gordon's villain. The resemblance is striking. Robert Patricks Terminator in T2 is basically Mr Gordons.
:-O
And I´m happy to see Shane Black gets attached to such nice projects. I hope they will give him enough room.
I always like Fred Ward. I rather thought Joel Grey helped kill off a sequel.
Destroyer is fantasy adventure, rife with social satire, humour Sinanju lore, graphic violence but more in the cartoonish vein, ie in the early books, the authors were quite mad. They had Chiun killing annoying pizza delivery guys and other members of society who happened to be irking the authors that week. Remo would gripe that he had to keep taking out the bodies. The books are rife with social satire. Remo occasionally freelances and takes out those that the justice system missed. ie He took out OJ Simpson on the golf course. Teed off from long range and caught OJ in the head with his drive. Golfing accident. So sad.
Remo has lots of sex in the early books. Later he gets bored of it and spends more time fending the women off. Women are naturally drawn to his Sinanju feramones. Chiun concocts a repellant for him.
I must say, I was terribly moved when a few years ago, Remo surpassed Chiun in Sinanju skill and ascended to Reigning Master, passing all the tests, including his encounter with the Great Wang, the original Sinanju Master from many millenia ago, who is known to visit from the other side from time to time. Remo's status as the fulfillment of ancient Sinanju prophecy as the most powerful Master of all time, the Dead Night Tiger, made whole by the Master of Sinanju (Chiun) was confirmed and conferred upon him. One of the most moving moments in modern literature. Destroyer fans the world over shed tears, having been along for the journey.
One of the greatest moments in human history really. Chiun assumed Master Emeritus status, but of course still reserved the right to hector and generally browbeat his student.
That will never change. The core of the series really is the Remo-Chiun, father-son relationship.
Any of the first 70 books is authentic Sinanju penned by the original authors. Richard Sapir died around book 70. Warren Murphy carried on alone and with ghosts for another 80 books or so. Jim Mullaney eventually emerged as designated successor.
But the series really beneifited from the combined writing efforts of the original pairing. Sapir wrote much of Chiun while Murphy developed Remo. Murphy mellowed over the years and toned down a lot of the craziness from the early books, but it was the irreverent tone of the 70's and 80's titles that really drove sales through the roof in the heyday.
I would recommend anyone starting a Sinanju journey to start with book #59, The Arms of Kali, from the mid '80s, in which Remo not only must battle earth bound enemies but also the evil Hindu goddess Kali and her human followers. The Hindu Destroyer God Shiva manifests in this book. He resides deep within Remo. Remo is his worthy human avatar. Shiva manifests only when Remo is in a particulary tight spot. Remo later has no memory of being taken over by Shiva. Shiva's appearances though scare the heck out of Chiun. Remo doesn't believe any of it, at least not until much later when he fully embraces his Sinanju self and destiny.
The stretch of books from 59-70 are particularly strong IMO. The two authors were peaking the series I think at this point. Sales were robust. It was during this period that the film was made too. The film was released at the time of Book #62 The Seventh Stone, which is first book I read after seeing the movie and then I was hooked.
Murphy and Mullaney carried the series all the way to book 149 circa 2008 including the their final 4 New Destroyer collaborations. The series has since revived on ebook format with Murphy and a couple of ghosts having turned out a few new titles.
Mullaney has moved on to his own projects until such time as Destroyer can get a proper publisher again.
Murphy btw has denounced roughly 20-odd later titles which were penned by a publisher-authorized ghost not approved by Murphy. When he got control of the series again and put Mullaney back in place, he formally disowned the offending titles and struck them from canon. I found the offending titles readable and even enjoyable. That would be blasphemy to some Destroyer fans, but I read all the Bond continuation stuff too, so what do I know.
All hail the Glorious House of Sinanju. :D
http://www.bookgasm.com/reviews/sci-fi/bullets-broads-blackmail-bombs-glorious-house-of-sinanju/
Say- does anyone here have the widescreen version of the Fred Ward movie? The only one I could get a hold of is the *meh* pan-N-scan DVD...
They are quick breezy reads. When I was plowing through the original paperbacks, I was knocking down 2-3 a week easy, sometimes one a day. Later the books padded out to 350. That was a new publisher who decided that would be the length. Some of them became a bit of a slog, depending on which ghost was writing