The Rocketeer was a 1991 film that wouldn’t find success until nerds made it popular on home video. Now, Ryan Kalil and Blake Griffin are wanting to give it a second life on the silver screen.
That’s right, sports fans. Panthers Center Ryan Kalil and Clippers Salary Cap Hit Blake Griffin have founded a new media venture that wants to make The Rocketeer their first outing. Currently dubbed The Rocketeers, the film takes place six years after the original. The new lead is going to be a young African-American female pilot, which no one on Twitter will have an opinion about.
Faster than you can say “Willa Brown,” this film is moving forward with a script by Max Winkler and Matt Spicer. Given the fact that Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens has been dead for going on 8 years now, fans shouldn’t expect anything resembling the source material. However, enjoy this as a chance for Disney to revamp their live-action catalog.
If the success of making The Rocketeer into a vibrant franchise gives the world a new take on Condorman, let it happen. Word is still out on whether Alan Arkin has been approached for a role.
Film fans of a certain age will have fond memories of Cliff and Peevy getting their Nazi Superman rocket pack to fly around the airfield. But, will this film play with the Pokémon Go generation? More importantly, who is going to score this new outing now that James Horner has passed away? That Rocketeer score stands among Horner’s best cinematic work and still gets sampled for commercials and other trailers to this very day.
And if NFL and NBA players are forming film companies to get these properties off the ground, what else is in the pipeline? Could audiences expect a modern Hackers to get greenlit? What a fascinating time to be alive.