Steven Spielberg is looking to produce(and perhaps direct) DC’s “Blackhawk”. Hope to hell he keeps it period, and a small Wonder Woman cameo couldn’t hurt.
I used to enjoy the Blackhawk comics back in the 1960s, but as a kid and not knowing all the Allied countries in WWII it was hard to figure out what their ethnic identities were supposed to be except for Andre, the Frenchman, and the bizarre Chop-Chop. Hendrikson in particular appeared to be German, but apparently was supposed to be Dutch. Olaf (“Py yiminy!”) was my first exposure to Scandinavian stereotypes.
I don’t think this version will have any of those stereotypes. They might also use it to showcase other DC Comics WWII characters, like Sgt. Rock’s Easy Company or the Unknown Soldier.
Not having the team be multinational would take a lot of the fun out of it, though of course no doubt they would tone done the stereotypes. In particular they would certainly use the updated version of Chop Chop, Weng Chan, who is a skilled pilot and/or martial arts expert.
As long as they avoid that embarrassing bit where they turned the team into a modern mercenary troupe with stupid code names.
Never liked Blackhawk, except for Chop-Chop, and then only as an outstanding example of an offensive ethnic stereotype. Apart from a few issues illustrated by Reed Crandall, I don’t recall any first-rate artists ever doing the series.
I have long thought there was a strong current of homo-eroticism in a bunch of men living together on an island wearing leather. I mean…
I wonder if the proposed film version will explore this.
One other good thing about Blackhawk was the inspiration provided for a beautiful tribute story done in *Slow Death *#7:
Now if they had the old 2000AD Blackhawk - Nubian turned slave turned Roman legionary turned centurion turned alien gladiator turned extra-dimensional warrior last seen navigating a black hole in a wooden spaceship - they might have my interest.
I always thought it was odd that they were fighting Nazis - and they dressed like Nazis.
Dennis
Do you consider Dan Spiegle, Howard Chaykin and Dave Cockrum to be “first rate”? Because I do.
If they’re gonna do it, let’s go full balls out and have them use Darwyn Cooke’s Blackhawk appearance where they end up fighting dinosaurs on a lost island. You got your WWII flyers, you got your dinosaurs, you got your mysticism…
Hell, that’s practically a Spielberg trope right there, isn’t it?
Throw in The Haunted Tank, while you’re at it.
No I don’t. Mr. Chaykin comes the closest. I have not seen his work on “Blackhawk,” but “Satellite Sam” was some of his finest art I have ever seen. Clearly, the man is capable of first-rate work, but his unevenness prevents me from classifying his talent as wholly first-rate.
Admittedly, there is a lot of subjectivity in regards classifying art.
This sounds great. Especially if Blackhawk and his crew end up getting munched.
That would be…a problem.
The MAD version of Blackhawk brought on puberty about two years early.
The MAD version is the only reason I even know about Blackhawk.
At this rate, we’ll be making Bazooka Joe movies soon.
(I loved the MAD version: After Chop Chop saves the hero’s life: “It’s better to give than to receive…So I’m giving you the works, Chop old man. After all, what have you done for me…lately?” (He shoots Chop Chop in the head.)
Been done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1prpjrZmb8
With the added bonus of cute-but-still-kickass chicks.
Apparently they had an updated Haunted Tank movie planned several years ago but they would have simply updated it from an M2 Stuart to either an M3 Grant or M4 Sherman tank, that way they keep the Civil War ghost plot but make it a Union general in the namesake tank.