Shane Black to direct Doc Savage

With his latest film raking in the cash worldwide, Shane Black has wasted little time lining up his next project, with the Iron Man 3 director set to swap the comic book superhero Tony Stark for the pulp adventurer Doc Savage. We've known for a while that Black was developing a script for the project, which he has co-written with Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, and now Sony has announced that he's eyeing the project as his next directorial effort.

Created by Henry W. Ralston and John L. Nanovic, Doc Savage became one of the most popular pulp characters of the 1930s and 1940s before branching out into radio, film, television and comic books. A scientist, physician, adventurer, inventor, explorer and researcher, Clark Savage, Jr. possesses genius-level intellect and near superhuman abilities thanks to years of training, and puts his skills to good use punishing evil around the globe. He was previously portrayed on the big screen by Ron Ely (Tarzan) in 1975's Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze.

"We couldn’t be more excited to be building a franchise from the ground up with Shane and this team," said Hannah Minghella, president of production at Sony. "Shane and [producer Neal H. Moritz] have a fantastic understanding of the character and a great take on the material and we can’t wait to get this production up and running."

Now, who would you like to see portraying Doc Savage? Jean-Claude Van Damme appears keen...