One of my favorite movies from the ’90s is the Disney flick The Rocketeer directed by Joe Johnston.
As you may recall, The Rocketeer hit theaters way back in 1991 and while I thought it was cool, the film didn’t make the kind of money at the box office Disney needed (or wanted) to justify a sequel of any kind.
If you’ve never seen the film, it’s essentially about a man who finds a rocket-powered back pack and becomes a superhero – sort of like Iron Man.
In any event, Disney Studios, flush with new new management, is apparently planning to reboot the classic sci-fi flick. As expected, official details about the project are scarce, although new Disney studio chief Alan Horn has apparently expressed definite intereste in remaking the film.
So far, I’ve been fairly satisfied with some of the genre franchises that various studios have remade over the past few years and am cautiously optimistic about The Rocketeer.
Clearly, the original actors from the film are likely too old to reprise their roles as a simple sequel to the original. In the 1991 film, Billy Campbell played pilot Cliff Secord and the female lead was the undeniably hot Jennifer Connelly.
The premise? Campbell and his mechanic friend discover a top-secret rocket backpack prototype. Campbell dons the backpack after crafting a helmet and takes to the skies to fight Nazis in 1930s Los Angeles. If you’ve never seen the 1991 film, it’s still worth a couple of hours, so please do check out the trailer above.
