Is A Hawkman Movie Taking Flight?

CBR

By Kevin Melrose

Published May 31, 2011

Word emerged over the weekend that Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are developing a film based on the winged, mace-wielding superhero. Or perhaps it's merely re-emerging, as similar details surfaced almost a year and a half ago.

A brief item posted Friday on Badass Digest gained traction over the weekend, suggesting Warner Bros. is actively developing a movie based on Hawkman, the winged superhero with one of the most confusing origins in comics. BAD's report, based on the entry from It's On the Grid, was supplemented on Monday by The Playlist, which adds such details as the "part Indiana Jones/Da Vinci Code, part Ghost" log line description.

The thing is, I'm not sure any of this is new. Pajiba reported in December 2009 that Warner Bros. and DC Comics were developing a Hawkman film, described at the time as -- wait for it -- "part Indiana Jones, part Da Vinci Code and part Ghost." According to The Playlist, the IOTG entry also lists as a producer Gregory Noveck, DC's former senior vice president-creative affairs, who left the company in August 2010 amid massive restructuring. He's now senior vice president of production for SyfyFilms.

Those two tidbits combined lead me to think development may not be all that active. Add in the fact that Warner Bros. has yet to make any significant headway with movies based on The Flash, Wonder Woman or Green Arrow -- three far more easily translated concepts -- and, well, I think it'll be a long, long while before we see any incarnation of Hawkman on the big screen.

Here's the writers' log line, which is simply the high-concept pitch tacked on to an excerpt from the character's Wikipedia entry:

Part INDIANA JONES/DA VINCI CODE, part GHOST tentpole about the fictional superhero that appears in D.C. Comic books. He used archaic weaponry and large, artificial wings attached to a harness made of the Nth metal that allows flight. Most incarnations of Hawkman work closely with a partner/romantic interest named Hawkgirl or Hawkwoman in his fight against supervillains. Based on the DC comic.

Created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, Hawkman debuted in 1940, and has starred in four series over the decades. The 1979 Legends of the Superheroes television specials and a Baby Ruth commercial aside, his only live-action appearances were in three episodes of Smallville. Well, if you don't count the new "Toast to Green Lantern" comedy short below ...