A few years back, around the time of the “Ready Player One” film, came reports that filmmaker Steven Spielberg was developing an adaptation of the DC Comics property, “Blackhawk”.
That comic centers on a team of ace World War II pilots of varied nationalities, led by a mysterious man known as Blackhawk and operating from a secret island base.
The team took on not just Axis powers, but foes like King Condor and Killer Shark, an array of femme fatales, and various fantastical war machines. At its height, it outsold every other comic book but Superman.
In regards to the film, Spielberg was said to be producing alongside Kristie Macosko Krieger (“West Side Story”) and he could well direct while his frequent collaborator David Koepp would write the script.Â
Spielberg of course has since moved on to other projects and is lining up his “The Fabelmans” for release later this year along with more recently being linked to a new Frank Bullitt movie.
In an interview with Collider this week, Koepp addressed the status of the “Blackhawk” movie, saying its waiting for the current executive regime changes at the soon to be birthed Warner Bros. Discovery to settle down:
“We have a script that’s very good and we all think it’s very good. There were a lot of management changes at Warner Bros, so I think we’ve just been kind of waiting for that to settle down, and for them to decide what they want to do with their DC Universe.
Obviously I hope he does it or if he doesn’t direct it, I hope he produces it, someone great directs. Because it would be a great deal of fun. I’m very fond of the script and I hope it comes together. But again, that’s one of those movies that’s gonna need $200 million so, trying to get those whales off the beach is a big process.”
Unlike Marvel, DC Films has begun shifting away from its shared-universe model to allow more standalone stories and projects. So don’t expect this to be in the Snyder-verse according to Koepp:
“It would be hard because it’s 1941 or 1940, actually. So it would be a little tricky. As we were developing the script, we said ‘Hey, let’s make one great movie. It’s 1940, that’s the way it is.’ And if it works out and in the future they decide they want to unite anybody, I’m sure time travel will not be a problem. Because comic books have a great way of figuring that stuff out.”
Koepp’s comments suggest Spielberg, like with the fifth “Indiana Jones,” could also simply produce at this point with another director coming in. For now, the project remains in a holding pattern.
