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I may be the only one who cares about this, but whatever, it's worth a shot. Dunno how many of you are familiar with the long running (40+ years) action/adventure paperback series "Mack Bolan, The Executioner" created by the late Don Pendleton. I'm in a Facebook group for fans of the series and Linda Pendleton (Don's widow) revealed this week that a movie deal for the character has been signed. There's no release date yet but she sez that Shane Salerno ("Armageddon," "AvP: Requiem") will be scripting it and Bradley Cooper (!) is reportedly interested in playing Mack Bolan. I only know Cooper from the "Hangover" flicks so I'm reserving judgment.

I've been a fan of the book series since I was in high school and this is not the first time a Bolan movie has been rumored; in the 70s Steve McQueen was supposedly interested, then Burt Reynolds in the 80s, Sly Stallone was attached at one time, and I think even Vin Diesel was looking at it at some point. So who knows if it will even be made? But even so, my fanboy heart is beating a little faster today with the thought of FINALLY seeing Mack Bolan kick major ass on the big screen. :D

For those of you who may be going "Who the Hell is Mack Bolan?" I wrote a quickie fanboy blog about it: http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Is-Mack-Bolan-FINALLY-Coming-to-the-Silver-Screen (http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Is-Mack-Bolan-FINALLY-Coming-to-the-Silver-Screen)

I've been interested in reading the series for a long time.  Well, some of it.  It's pretty daunting to contemplate reading 600+ novels.

Is it hard to find the early novels? 

That said, from what I've read of the character (and the character who is basically a ripoff of him, Frank Castle), Bradley Cooper doesn't sound like a great choice.  Might be OK, as he's an excellent actor, but color me skeptical.

It's been a long time since I collected the older books in the series but they were reprinted multiple times throughout the 70s and 80s so I'd imagine it wouldn't be hard to track most of them down. It looks like you can get lots of em fairly cheap via Amazon.

Honestly, reading hundreds and hundreds of past books really isn't necessary, cuz there's really not *that* much back story (in a nutshell: Mafia kills his family, he wipes out Mafia, then works black ops for super secret US gov't agency hunting down terrorists. Repeat 600 times. Haha.) ... you could probably pick up a brand new ine off the rack today and get into it without feeling like you're "missing" anything.

They still crank those things out?

I read the first 30 or so, up to where it looked like Pendleton was trying to wind down the series, but then came a second wave of Mafia related stories. I gave up. My dad read all of them and was rather depressed when Mack "retired" after slaughtering 100,000s of Mafia. He was tickled pink when I discovered the newer series in which Mack went after terrorists back around 1982.

The Punisher from Marvel was a very vaguely disguised rip-off of Mack Bolan, with a similar backstory and everything. The true Bolan fans will be there for a film version, but the rest of the world will be thinking it's a rip-off of The Punisher.

Plus, if they try to update it, it would ruin the "exploitation" nature of the early novels, with their rough and violent action scenes, sexy women tempting Mack and good old military weapons. Updated with cellphones and high-tech nonsense used today...meh.

I always considered those books to be the masculine equivalent of Harlequin Romances.
Boy, Mack's girlfriends had a short life expectancy, didn't they?

Yep, that's exactly what they are...they're actually a division of the same company that publishes Harlequin Romances.  :teddyr:

Dammit, no! That's the role I always wanted to play!  :wink:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pk6%2BlHUoL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Hahahaha! It seems like every actor in Hollywood has been considered for the Mack Bolan role over the years. The property has been in and out of development hell numerous times since the 1970s. (I've seen copies of the early novels with a banner on the cover that sez "MAJOR FILM SERIES COMING!")....

At one time waaaay back in the day Steve McQueen was supposedly interested in playing him, as was Stallone, Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds, Vin Diesel (!) and the list goes on and on...

There again that's an interesting topic. I didn't know they were still publishing new titles in the series. I am old enough to remember when the series 1st began, and how many of the titles each took place in a different American city.

Bradley Cooper is an interesting choice to play the hero, as he is just coming off the success of "Guardians of the Galaxy," having voiced the character of Rocket. He probably has the acting chops to play the character of Bolan, but looking at his photos, I don't know if he has the physical presence that the character seems to call for.

Though, it might be awhile till he can get around to playing the role, as he not only has "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" upcoming in 2017, he had 4 more films coming out between now and then. Though, 3 of them are already in post production.

As for the "Punisher," there have already been several big screen versions of it. Plus there is another big screen version under development. Plus a TV series on the way.

I read about ten or so Mack Bolan books in the 80's, and I thoroughly agree that they are like the male equivalent of a Harlequin Mills and Boon novel.  Guns, women, action, taking down the bad guys, what more could a man want in a romantic fantasy???

Not so sure about Bradley Cooper playing Mack.  Maybe it's the way Mack was drawn on the covers, but I always envisioned him as a very hard, square jawed man with flinty eyes and sharp cheekbones.  Cooper is a good actor but his eyes are too gentle.  Good for him as an actor and person, not so good for playing hard individuals in movies. 

Not sure who in Hollywood fits that mold - maybe Cam Gigandet if you put ten more years on him and dyed his hair black.  Antonio Banderas if he lost the accent and 25 years.  I'd vote for Jason Statham in that role, too.

Okay: apart from your good selves  :teddyr: , who would you pick as a suitable Mack Bolan?

 Bradley Cooper is going to Mack Bolan?

Say What!!??!


Maybe the movie people will have Mack's super GMC RV with the hidden missles and other hidden things.

My wife is watching a rerun of "Criminal Minds" right now and it occurred to me that Thomas "Hotch" Gibson would make a good Mack Bolan. He's got the dark hair and the square jaw.

No, the credits must read:

MACK BOLAN: TREVOR T [TROUBLE] MOSES :wink:

Trev's version of a big Mack Attack: Flings his undies with deadly precision at all enemies.

With all due respect, he doesn't have to fling them. The mere sight of Trevor starting to take off his undies is enough to make any enemy of mankind run as far and as fast at they can.

 :teddyr: :teddyr:

And my girlfriends would be as tough as I was.  :teddyr:

Not to mention lacking the ability to smell.

Sample scene:

Mafia guy: You girls are in a world of sh!t.
Trevor's molls: We've dealt with worse, trust us.

Trev's Undies, Like hand grenades, but reuseable!

I read the early books, up to #42, I think. After that, what FatFreddysCat said applies. There was a short comic book series of The Executioner, I do recall.

Really? I would love to see it. I know Marvel stole the concept for their comic. Why Pendleton never sued is beyond me.

There's at least one other comic that was 'inspired' by other stories.  DC Comics produced 'Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth' in the 70's after they failed to gain the rights to make Planet of the Apes comics.  Set in a postapocalyptic future (aren't they all), Kamandi was constantly evading the intelligent animals that roamed the Earth.  Humans are mute primitives, animals were made intelligent by an experimental drug, and the world was blighted by radiation.  How they got away with this amazes me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamandi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamandi)

Legend has it that the Punisher came about because Marvel had approached Pendleton (or his publisher) about doing a Mack Bolan comic book series but the two sides couldn't come to an agreement, therefore Marvel created the Punisher, who was basically Mack Bolan in a super hero costume. Dunno how true that is, but it seems logical enough.

There was a short lived Executioner comic book series in the early 1990s, put out by one of the small indie publishers.

The thing that kills me about The Punisher is that they had a big story arc that resulted in him getting plastic surgery (very much like Mack Bolan in the early books) and it resulted in him becoming an African-American. But they NEVER followed up on that that I'm aware of. Damn shame. Could have been a perfect spin-off to the Spawn comics.

Oh well. Maybe in another life.

I don't know if this will affect the Mack Bolan film project in any way but it was recently announced that the "Executioner" book series will be discontinued at the end of this year. The final novel in the series, appropriately titled FINAL ASSAULT, will be released in December 2015.

It's not exactly a surprise since readership has apparently been declining for years but it'll be a shame to see the series come to an end. I wonder if Mack will finally retire from his War Against Evil in the final volume, or if they'll leave things open-ended in hopes of another publisher picking up the series.