The Rocketeer

TheFedora

Active member
Goonie said:
Ticks me off that Disney is sitting on the Rocketeer and Dick Tracy and not doing anything with them. Love movies that are set in that time period, just like the first Captain America.

Lots of people sit on rights just so nobody else can get them. But yes, that is pretty sad. I mean, I can see them doing something period, especially now that they ahve that Agent Carter series. wasted chance really.
 

TheFedora

Active member
Sorry for double post but for a dead franchise, Rocketeer has had quite a bit of merch recently!

SDCC exclusive Rocketeer figure was released this year. (evidently not popular since it sells for about 12 bucks on ebay but still...

Funko announced some 'mystery minis' a week ago, which are like blind box little figures. One of which is Cliff! He has a rarity of 1/72 which puts him at the rarest figure in the set.

So thats two new pieces of Rocketeer merch this year.

Also Funko has a bobblehead of the Rocketeer in their toy line but I don't know when they released that one.

So yeah, seems he is still having a toy presence.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
It's worth noting that The Rocketeer is touching down on Netflix's streaming service starting November 1st. If you haven't picked up the anniversary Blu-ray, then here's your chance to see the really, really swank visual upgrade from the crappy DVD release at the turn of the century.

Blu-Ray.com said:
Johnston nails two things from the outset: pacing and casting. Even when Cliff's feet are firmly planted on the ground, the movie hurtles along with the kind of energy and vitality that can only be derived from a director and production team fully committed and invested in their vision. The film never stalls, never idles, and never crashes back down to Earth. It takes off and doesn't look back, roaring around each twist and turn with ease. And Johnston's casting is, hyperbole notwithstanding, flawless. Campbell throws a punch, kisses a girl and launches into the heavens like the A-list leading man he should have become; Arkin and O'Quinn are terrific, each in their own separate ways; Connelly steals every heart there is to be stolen; and Dalton is as devious and dastardly as a vile comicbook villain should be, yet rarely pushes his performance over the top, dwelling within the shadows when others might leap out and scream "boo!" It's an impressive lineup to be sure (I forgot just how many notable mugs pop up on screen), and one that Johnston uses to his full advantage.

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Full review here.

And then go buy a copy already!
 

TheFedora

Active member
The Rocketeer Reboot will be called 'The Rocketeers'

The Rocketeer is ready to blast off once again.

Walt Disney Studios is developing a reboot of the 1991 action adventure movie, hiring Max Winkler and Matt Spicer to pen the script for the project, which is being titled The Rocketeers.

The project, in the early development stages, is being looked at as a sequel-reboot and in a modern-day twist, will be headlined by a black female character.

he new take keeps the story in a period setting and offers a fresh view on the characters. Set six years after the original Rocketeer and after Secord has vanished while fighting the Nazis, an unlikely new hero emerges: a young African?American female pilot, who takes up the mantle of Rocketeer in an attempt to stop an ambitious and corrupt rocket scientist from stealing jetpack technology in what could prove to be a turning point in the Cold War.

Still being produced by Disney so I wonder if they will try to merge this into the current Marvel movies.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
TheFedora said:
The Rocketeer Reboot will be called 'The Rocketeers'



Still being produced by Disney so I wonder if they will try to merge this into the current Marvel movies.


I'm all for expanding roles to all gender and race in Hollywood, but reboots just to put an alternative role in smacks of the most disingenuous load of hooey I've ever seen:

The project, in the early development stages, is being looked at as a sequel-reboot and in a modern-day twist, will be headlined by a black female character.

What next:

Charlene's Archangels? With Barbara as Bosley; and Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and the lead investigators!?!

wait, that actually sounds kinda cool
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
TheFedora said:
Still being produced by Disney so I wonder if they will try to merge this into the current Marvel movies.

I'm not so sure that's necessary (or even feasible) when The Walt Disney Company has a budding pulp universe to play with in The Rocketeer, The World Famous Jungle Cruise Movie, and The Septuagenarian Strokefest.

Pale Horse said:
I'm all for expanding roles to all gender and race in Hollywood, but reboots just to put an alternative role in smacks of the most disingenuous load of hooey I've ever seen

Diversity for diversity's sake is a terrible construct, but have you noticed that H-wood's idea about diversity invariably means adding a black person to the rolls?

The Hollywood Reporter said:
The Rocketeer Reboot will be called 'The Rocketeers'

I was initially against the idea, then for it when it was later confirmed to be a period piece and not a modern-day adaptation. The more I think about it, however, the less enthusiastic I am about the idea. I'd go so far to say I don't like it.

Given the history of immigration in the American West and this time period in particular, I'd like to see a Japanese lead take up the mantle. Male or female. Doesn't matter. You can tie it in with Manzanar, Pearl Harbor & Takeo Yoshikawa, and the perceived Yellow Peril of the time. Tying it into the burgeoning Cold War shouldn't be difficult given the long history of Russians in the Pacific Northwest.

And that's already more interesting than the synopsis the screenwriters have concocted. You get a diverse cast, a section of the war and the country that's usually ignored in film, and a veritable treasure trove of subtext to explore and layer in the film.

Rocketeer+1.jpg
 

TheFedora

Active member
The Rocketeer is getting an animated series!

http://deadline.com/2018/02/the-rocketeer-disney-channel-1202304023/


Disney Junior has begun production on The Rocketeer, a new animated adventure series aimed at kids 2-7 and inspired by Dave Stevens’ comic book series. It’s set to premiere in 2019.

The Rocketeer follows Kit, a young girl who receives a surprise package on her birthday revealing that she’s next in line to become the Rocketeer, a legendary superhero who has the ability to fly with the help of a rocket-powered jet pack. Armed with her cool new gear and secret identity, Kit is ready to take flight and save the day with her gadget-minded best friend, Tesh, and airplane-mechanic uncle, Ambrose, who join her on epic adventures.

Each episode of The Rocketeer will feature a pair of 11-minute stories and include an original song. Nicole Dubuc (Transformers: Rescue Bots) is executive producer. The series will be produced by Wild Canary in association with Disney Junior.

We are very excited to introduce ‘The Rocketeer’ to our young Disney Junior audience,” said Joe D’Ambrosia, the channel’s SVP Original Programming. “The vast storytelling found in the original comic books provides the perfect opportunity to create an exciting new adventure series told from a young girl superhero perspective that the whole family can enjoy together.”

Premise sounds a lot similar to that 'reboot' film that was being reported earlier.
 

Dyland

Active member
The Rocketeer is an absolute favorite of mine! Brilliant score by James Horner, and stellar performances all around! Such a great throwback to the days of adventurous popcorn cinema & pulp! And it faired so much better than the (still decent) other 3 90's pulp movies, The Shadow, The Phantom, and Dick Tracy. The Rocketeer comics are a blast, too!

Thanks for sharing the article! :)
 

Archaeos

Member
Shamefully unaware of its 30th anniversary, but coming off watching Marvel MCU's Agent Carter series, I happen to have decided to watch The Rocketeer just last week. I had seen it in Germany in cinema when originally released (and still have the booklet that was given as a freebie to cinemagoers), and then again on DVD half way through to today.

I decided to re-watch now it for two reasons:
1) I wanted to see if the streaming copy on Disney+ is of a superior resolution to physical releases so far (spoiler: it's not 4K, it's just HD)
2) I wanted to see the portrayal of Howard Hughes as played by Terry O'Quinn, especially in the wake of the Hughes-inspired Howard Stark character as played by Dominic Cooper in Agent Carter.

The soundtrack by Jack Horner really makes this film stand out, just as many Spielberg movies would have aged terribly would it not have been for John Williams. The film has some pacing issues, and it has a decidedly late-80s early-90s flair to it that would not have worked just 2 years later – think of the cinematic leap Spielberg made with Jurassic Park, or think of other pulp comic adaptations even like The Shadow. Frankly, my positive nostalgia for this film could not cover up that I can now see why this movie flopped. But the practical and visual effects are excellent for the limited budget they had.

Although this film works well as a closed-off story with a solid and fully-earned ending for all the main characters, the fate of the Hughes X3 rocket pack, and all the assorted villains and allies, I think it's kind of a shame that this did not see a sequel. In particular, I would have loved to see more of Terry O'Quinn as Howard Hughes as his portrayal is underrated and eclipses the take on Hughes that Leonardo DiCaprio had with his impersonation in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator – I recall that acting as a bit too tortured, but I may be wrong as I admit that I have not seen The Aviator for over a decade... my memory may be skewed. 🤠
 

Forbidden Eye

Well-known member
A pretty good retrospective on The Rocketeer.

 

emtiem

Well-known member
One thing I wonder about Rocketeer: there's an early scene where we see neville Sinclair shooting his Robin Hood-style film on a castle set and there's a sequence where his co-star is found to have been stabbed. What's that about? It never gets mentioned again but I'm not sure what's supposed to have happened. Has Sinclair stabbed him on purpose because he was being upstaged or was it an accident?
 
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