Shane Black Sounds Like He’s Ready To Cast The Rock In DOC SAVAGE

Last weekend, The Rock caused a bit of a kerfuffle after posting the following message to his Instagram account.

 

Finding our anchor. When I'm shooting on location I always need a space where I can work and keep building the enterprise. Here in Georgia this has been my space for months now. Keepin' it country. Every film, TV show, partnership and project we develop gets handled from here. When I feel good about it, it goes in the pile to the left that clearly reflects my OCD. When I'm still making adjustments, it stays on the pile on the right. All contracts that need signing remain in the middle. On the iPad I'm reading an outline for a cool movie I'll make in 2017 (with director Shane Black) and when I get tired and need a lil' pick me up, the shaker cup holds a special shot of energy - Elk piss. The more complicated our lives get, the more we need simple spaces like this to anchor us. In simplistic terms, find your work space and anchor to help you keep your shit together. #AndDontTryDrinkingElkPiss #IWasKidding #ItsLionBlood ��⚓️

A photo posted by therock (@therock) on May 15, 2016 at 6:46pm PDT

 

In case you couldn't guess, the kerfuffle in question revolves around that Shane Black shoutout. An outline for a new Shane Black movie? Something that's being filmed in 2017? What could that possibly be? 

Well, the answer wasn't The Predator, which is the assumption I saw a whole bunch of people making. It's not that The Rock wouldn't be a great fit for the Predator universe (reminder: said universe also includes Topher Grace and Adrien Brody), but that the timing simply didn't add up: that film's supposed to start shooting in August or September of this year. And, as you may have noticed, August or September of 2016 are not months that fall between January and December of 2017, which is a different year entirely. 

So if not The Predator, then what? The likely answer was Doc Savage. 

The timeline made sense. The casting made sense. And now, in a Reddit AMA that ran yesterday in support of The Nice Guys, Black himself all but confirmed our suspicions. After a Reddit user asked him about the possibility, Black responded:

Now, you're talking. Doc Savage was -- and is -- as much a part of my creative life as any other influence (with the possible exception of The Cricket in Times Square, oddly). With 182 stories in the original canon to choose from (I confess to having only read 107) it becomes nigh impossible to pick any one book, so we have to synthesize the elements -- the protypical TYPE of tale -- that best sums up the entire bloody mess; not just an episode wiuthin the genre. It's really daunting, frankly. As for Duane -- Google "James Bama - Doc Savage" and look at the images which assailed me from the book rack at Shop-Rite when I was young. The Rock seems very insertable, doesn't he?

Obviously, this isn't an official confirmation, but Black's strongly hinting in that direction. And he's definitely right about that Google Image search. Give it a shot and you'll see what he means.

UPDATE: Our friend Matt Patches, who recently interviewed Black, has helpfully pointed out that there really isn't any question about this: he straight-up tells Matt in this interview that he wants The Rock for Doc Savage and hopes to make it with him once their schedules align. Thanks, Matt!

What do you guys think about this? Think The Rock would make a good Savage? If not, who do you want to see in the role? Also, how many times are you going to see The Nice Guys this weekend? Having caught the film last night, my vote is that you see it a minimum of two times.