The Black Bat
The Story: After D.A. Tony Quinn is blinde𒀰d by acid, he develops sup♐er-sharp senses to compensate.
And when a surgeon grafts new corneas, Quinn finds ꦗhe can also see in the dark - cue a crime-fighting hero with the abilities of a bat.
How To Make It Modern: Between Batman and Daredevil , Hollywood’s got the dramatic rights ✃to The Black Bat’s powers pretty much sown up.
So piss-take is the way to go here, w♒ith Will Ferrell as an Average Joe who can't help but spot nefarious goings-on wherever he looks or listens.
Captain Future
The Story: The adventur൩es of Curtis Newton, a moon boy orphaned after his parents are murdered.
He grows up to be a "wizard of science" after being raised by Grag (a robot), Otho (a shape-shifting android) and Simon Wright (🧸a disembodied brain in a glas𒊎s case). Yes, really.
How To Make It Modern: Collectors of cult anime may know the 1970s Japanese TV series, but for modern Hollywood it’s an excuse for a family-friendly franchise: Three Freaks and a Superbaby .
Zac Efron as Curtis is a deadꦫ cert. Then it's just a matter of surrounding him with reputable voice-talent as his surrogate parents.
Let's say, Robin Williams, Steve Coogan and Du✃ꦉstin Hoffman.
Domino Lady
The Story: The femm𝕴e fatale of pulp fiction, socialite Ellen Patrick avenged the murder of her D.A. dad by using feminine wiles to defeat the city’s scum. Her secret weapon: a syringe of knockout serum.
How To Make It Modern: Scantily clad body, face hidden behind a mask, subversive application of date-rape tactics... T🔜alk about a post-feminist fantasy.
Ellen Patrick's a perfect role for Scarlett Johansen post- The Spirit , but let’s sack Frank Miller and give the gig to his Sin City compadre R💛obert Rodriguez, a guy who can balance shlock and𝓀 shock.
Doctor Death
The Story: Occult reactionary (and Communist) Dr Rance Mandarin wants to bomb🐲 Earth back to the Stone Age.
Our only salvation? The Secret Twelve, an elite crime-fighting unit sanctioned by the President and led by🍰 supernatural detective Jimmy Holm.
How To Make It Modern: A war on terror against science-savvy fundamentalists? To⛦picality’s not an issue in the era of Al Qu♏aida.
Bad taste’s another matter entirely. If Trey Parker and Matt Stone ever felt like following up Team America 💙with a superhero spoof, they could do worse than adapt this.
Doc Savage
The Story: Clark Savage, Jr benefitted from an education that was like something out of The Krypton Factor , his mind an꧟d body trained in🍨to exceptional mental and physical strength.
Now he's the world's greatest adventurer, defeating evi🌊lꦬ masterminds with kung fu and rationalist scepticism.
How To Make It Modern: After Indiana Jones’ world-wea🦹ry fallibility, Doc Savage’s perfection is a bit of a stretch.
He even has a hideout called൲ The Fortress of Solitude.ꩵ Who does he think he is? Superman?
A healthy dose of camp is required to get through this. We’re calling on Todd Solondtz - with Jon Hamm as Savage - to reveal the🌠 psychological han🍸g-ups of this wannabe Kal El.
Moon Man
The Story: Meet disillusioned cop Stephen Thatcher, who feels not enough is being done to help the victims of cr﷽ime.
Start a charity? Sorta. He dons a glass helmet to moonlight as a space-age Robin Hood, busting hoodlums of their cash and redistributing it to the 𒁏poor.
How To Make It Modern: The troubled psyche of a lawmaker in a world gone to hell? This could be Michael Mann's chance to 🔯bring his blend of sleek and steel to the comic-book genre.
And, with a subplot revolving around Moon Man's attempts to keep a step ahead of by-the-book colleague Detective Gill McEwen, it's practically Heat ... with capes.
The Spider
The Story: Millionaire playbo♏y Richard Wentworth turns vigilante, branding his vanquished foes across thꦏe forehead with the mark of a spider.
You'd think it was embarrasꦗsing enough for the villains that the guy who duffed them up was wearing a fright wig, fanged dentures...and a fedora.
How To Make It Modern: Hmmm, this one's a bit "generic superhero."
Perhaps the way forward is Timothy Truman's 1990s comic-strip reboot, which dropped💎 The Spid🦹er into today's world...as it might have been imagined by a 1930s writer.
That way, Terry Gilliam can get all retro-futuristic on the decor and give his Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus discovery Andrew Garfield his signature role.
The Spider
The Story: Millionaire playboy Richard Wentworth turns vigilante, branding his vanquished foes across the f🐎orehead with the mark of a spider.
You'🅷d think it was embarrassing enough for the villains that 📖the guy who duffed them up was wearing a fright wig, fanged dentures...and a fedora.
How To Make It Modern: Hmmm, this one's a bit "generic superhero."
Perhaps the way forward is Timothy Truman's 1🎐990s comic-strip reboot, which dropped The Spider into today's world...as it might have been imꦛagined by a 1930s writer.
That way, Terry Gilliam can get all retro-futuristic on the decor and give his Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus discovery Andrew Garfield his signature role.
Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective
The Story: Self-explanatory, really. Dan Tu💎rner’s a detective, who works in Hollywood. The stories (criminal goings-on in movie studios) practically write themselves.
How To Make It Modern: Forget it - in these days of🌱 publicists and super-i🍨njunctions, Turner wouldn’t get past the gates.
But, as James Ellroy has proved, there’s plenty of mileage in exploring the seamy underbelly of ‘Gol🦩de✃n Age’ L.A.
We still feel robbed that David Fincher never got to deliver his tantalising take on Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia , so let’s get hi💛m on-board (with Brad playing Dan Turner, natch) to bring some of Fincher’s pitch-black imagination to pulp oper𒁏a.
Sexton Blake
The Story: He drives a bullet-proof Rolls-Royce, and duels with a successionไ of outré villains like contortionist Waldo The Wonderman.
The detective as man of a🎃ction, Blake is theꦺ missing link between Sherlock Holmes and James Bond.
How To Make It Modern: The 1960s ITV series imagined Blake as a poor man’s Avengers ; in today’s blockbuster era, it would have to be a Pirates of the Caribbean -style mash-up of comic action andܫ CGI-enhanced supervillainy.
And the man to make Sexton as iconic as Captain Sparrow? Ewan McGregor. It's high time he abandoned Obi Wan-ness and brought some of Renton's cheekin⛄ess to the popcorn-munching multiplex hordes.
The Eel
The Story: Described as a man “of courageous actions and questionable morals,” little is known about this slippery character, who narrated his adventures of hunting treasure (𝓀and totty) in the first-♍person.
How To Make It Modern: A Bondian ladies'💜 man who gives nothing away? Sounds like an ideal fit for taciturn Clive Owen.
Pair him 🌳up with Quentin Tarantino in the director's chair, and let 🦂the quips do the talking as this amoral bounty-hunter beds and bludgeons his way around the globe.
Bran Mak Morn
The Story: Bran Mak Morn is warrior-king of the pint-sized Pict tribe, trying to maintain noble 𝕴ideals in warfare.
Tough gig, considering he faces Roman occupation on one side and the superstitious barbarism of the P🍨icts’ uncivilised priests on the other.
How To Make It Modern: This one’s actually in development by Working Title, so we could well find out in the next couple of years. Think Braveheart , Apocalypto …
Let'♓s face it, the producers are fools if Mel Gibson’s not already on their speed-dial. Even controversial Mel might need to tone down those outdated ‘noble savage’ overtones, though.
The Continental Op
The Story: The original hard-boiled detective, created by Dashiell Hamm💫ett. Amoral, pragmatic and cynical, he's the perfect anti-hero for an imperfect world.
How To Make It Modern: James Coburn played the Op in a 1970s miniseries, and frankly we’d cast him again if he waꦕs still around.
The next best thing is surely Coburn’s screen son in Affliction , Nick Nolte. Gravelly voice, hangdog looks and real-life woes could gener😼ate a Mickey Rourke-styl☂e comeback.
In the director chair's, Brick proved that Rian Johnson can handle noir ambience – let's give him the chance to make this generation’s Chinatown .
Green Lama
The Story: Wealthy playboy (aren’t they all?) Jethro Dumont renounced worl🐻dly goods after training with Tibetan monks for ten year🐭s. Now he fights crime with the power of Buddhism!
Oh, and he's𒉰 also got more scientifically-based superpowers, caused by radiation. Belt and braces, people.
How To Make It Modern: ꦏAmazing, really, that Richard Gere or Steven Seagal haven’t optioned this one.
Orlando Bloom’s probably the biggest Buddhist star right now. To be honest, he could do with proving his mettle as a blockbuster lead (no, Pirates and LOTR don’t count).
Then again, with the Chinese market increasingly vital to t▨he studios' global box office, Orlando might need to financ✨e this one himself.
Biggles
The Story: Flyboy James Bigglesworth is a very English he🧸ro.
He engaged WWI Germans in dogfights as a teenager, before defending King and country against Nazis and Communists. Jolly good 🌌show, chap.
How To Make It Modern: It’s been tried. Check out Johꦆn Hough's 1986 fantasy movie, which added time travel to the mix by sending a modern-day Yank to help Biggles fight the Hun.
It’s a mess (albeit a charmingly bonkers one), so let’s try doing this one straight. In the hands of Atonement fellas Joe Wright and James McAvoy, it could be a Brit wartime classic to rival The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp .
