Amidst the unending tidal wave of this year’s Marvel and DC casting announcements, it’s entirely possible you might have missed a couple of slightly ‘off the wall’ ones that have come from the other studios, and herald the return of some properly ‘old-school’ superheroes.
The first of these was that ‘Mr Franchise Viagra’ himself, Dwayne Johnson, has signed on to play Doc Savage AKA ‘The Man Of Bronze’. That’s a relatively straightforward decision. Johnson’s done more than his fair share of bare-chested heroics in his time, and his casting as an indestructible adventurer is all quite logical.
The second, well, not so much. Those of you of a certain age will remember an 80’s cartoon named ‘Defenders Of The Earth’. This followed a motley team of human heroes embroiled in an unending galactic battle with the forces of Ming The Merciless. The group was led by Flash Gordon, and featured The Phantom, with both of these characters having gone on to be granted their own respective feature films and reboots.
The next big player of the bunch was a slightly eccentric character called ‘Mandrake The Magician’, who deployed the use of conjuring, hypnotism and illusions to confound and distract his opponents. Think DC’s Zatanna, but without the tights, and with a mustache. Perhaps given the nature of his powers, he never really got put forward for a big-screen project, but it seems like the recent success of ‘Now You See Me’ may have changed that.
Warner Brothers have announced that a script has been commissioned for a ‘Mandrake’ feature-film, with Sacha Baron Cohen attached to star as the titular magic-man. So in this age of superhero saturation, how much of a risk are Warners committing them-self to?
Well, for starters, there’s the subject material. Mandrake made his debut in newspaper serials back in 1939, when the idea of a magician taking on bank robbers and gangbangers might have appealed to the folk of the day. As if the general idea of this wasn’t outlandish enough, he’s quite a cliche-rich character, equipped with a sidekick who was an African Prince by the name of Lothar. And not only did he have an identical twin brother called Derek, but his main enemy, imaginatively titled ‘The Cobra’, was also his half-brother. Is this all starting to sound a little ‘The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ to anybody else?
Coupled alongside that, there’s also the selection of Baron Cohen himself. He’s quite hard to define and pin down as a performer. Whilst it’s undeniable her throws his everything into every project he takes on, his output is fairly variable, with recent release ‘Grimsby’ having been critically panned. He’s also not particularly renowned for his dramatic performances, which would indicate the project is looking for a more comedic and light-hearted tone. You know, like ‘The Green Hornet’ did?
There’s no denying that with the stranglehold that the ‘Big Two’ have over the blockbuster market, there’s room for slightly varied and different takes on the superhero genre. And whether you love or loathe the man behind Borat, you can’t deny he’s genuinely entertaining on everything he turns his hand to.
What do you guys think about the prospect of a ‘Mandrake’ movie? Sound off below!