Having garnered quite the favourable response with his long-awaited Ready Player One adaptation, now Steven Spielberg has turned his attention to the superhero genre.
As announced by Warner Brothers, Spielberg will be overseeing a picture based around DC’s Blackhawk character. At present, the Jaws helmer is set to produce the movie, although there is a good chance that he may well be on directing duties, too.
On this news, The WB’s Toby Emmerich enthused, “We are so proud to be the studio behind Steven Spielberg’s latest hit, and are thrilled to be working with him again on this new action adventure. We can’t wait to see what new ground he will break in introducing Blackhawk to movie audiences worldwide.”
Warners will be teaming with Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment, and, as alluded to by Emmerich, that is a partnership that was in place for the big screen take on Ready Player One. On this Blackhawk project, David Koepp is currently working on the screenplay. Continuing the working partners theme, Koepp has worked with Spielberg in some form or fashion on the likes of Jurassic World, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
For those not familiar with Blackhawk, the origins of the character go as far back as 1941. Playing on the military angles of the day, the Blackhawk Squadron were a prestigious team of World War II pilots led by the mysterious Blackhawk. During those early years, the Blackhawk comic book series regularly outsold heavy hitters such as Batman and Superman. Battling all kinds of warmongers and heavy machinery, the Blackhawks have seen their fair amount of change over the subsequent decades. In more recent years, the group have been upgraded to be a covert unit who specialise in taking down tech-based criminals, with former Hawkgirl Kendra Saunders running the show as Lady Blackhawk.
Up next for Spielberg before any Blackhawk picture are the fifth outing for the Indiana Jones franchise and his take on West Side Story. After that, this Blackhawk project should begin to develop further.
