Mike Hammer is about to look a lot like Rust Cohle — or maybe it’s the other way around (time is a flat circle, after all). The point is: Matthew McConaughey is reuniting with his True Detective creator, Nic Pizzolatto, to bring one of the most iconic, and aggressive, detectives to the big screen, with everyone’s favorite Texan taking on the titular role. That’s right, the prolifically-penned, pulp-y private eye, Mike Hammer, will be the focus of Pizzolatto’s next scripted project.
The news, which was first reported by Deadline, comes on the heels of McConaughey’s return to the screen in The Rivals of Amziah King after a six-year absence (if you don’t count all the cartoon voice work he’s done in the intervening years). And while the film’s production house, Skydance, has yet to secure a director, with talents like McConaughey and Pizzolatto on board, it will probably only be a matter of days — rather than months — before a name is announced. After all, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels have been around for decades, spawning a number of successful films, television, and even radio programs. (Hey, the first novel, I, The Jury, came out in 1947 — of course they made a radio show out of it!)
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The sheer number of novels and short stories involved in the Mike Hammer universe is impressive, meaning there’s plenty of material from which to choose. But whichever way they go with it, one thing is certain: Mike Hammer will take justice into his own hands when necessary. Which will either excite or exhaust you, depending on your feelings about grumpy, patriotic detectives who hate communism. (And what a time to be putting that character out into the world, huh?)
Don’t know who this Mike Hammer character is? Curious to know who else is involved in the project? Keep reading to learn more about all of that and more.
Ian Fleming Called James Bond The British Answer To Mike Hammer
Spies, private detectives: they’re not exactly the same job, but they certainly do a lot of sneaking around and snooping to solve things. So, yeah, sure, James Bond and Mike Hammer are different sorts of fellas in many ways, but in others — getting the job done, their way, for example — they are decidedly the same.
They’re also not afraid of a bit of light murder. For those who aren’t familiar with the Mickey Spillane novels and the various adaptations they spawned, Mike Hammer is the sort of private eye who isn’t afraid to be unconventional in his methods, and that includes killing killers in the name of justice (all while relishing the violent gore of the act itself). Mike Hammer is, as a Spillane obituary once put it, “a cynical loner contemptuous of the ‘tedious process’ of the legal system, choosing instead to enforce the law on his own terms,” comparing Hammer to Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character — another inspired by the soon-to-be McConaughey-faced detective.
McConaughey is just one of several actors who’ve portrayed Mike Hammer over the years. Others include Biff Elliot, Ralph Meeker, Robert Bray, Darren McGavin, Armand Assante, Kevin Dobson, Rob Estes, Brian Keith, and even Spillane himself (in a 1963 movie). It should be noted, however, that the most prolific Mike Hammer would be Stacy Keach. The actor portrayed Hammer in a CBS television series, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, which ran from 1984 to 1987, with a tiny blip of a return to the role during the 1997/98 television season.
On the production side of things, Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger will produce the film alongside Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady. Additional producers include Benjamin Forkner of Pendleton, and Ken F. Levin. Max Allan Collins — who finished writing many of the novels and short stories Mickey Spillane started — and Spillane’s wife, Jane, will also produce.
Source:
Release Date
1958 – 1958
Network
CBS
Directors
Boris Sagal, John English, Lawrence Dobkin, Richard Irving
Writers
Fenton Earnshaw
-
Barney Phillips
Oren Bass
-
Cindy Carol
Anna Zabreski
-
Darren McGavin
Uncredited
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