While not a Lucasfilm production, the 1991 fan favourite film The Rocketeer certainly has plenty of Lucasfilm connections. Directed by Joe Johnston, the movie featured state-of-the-art visuals effects from ILM and shared the era, style and flair of Lucasfilms Indiana Jones series. Step forward three decades and The Rocketeer is coming back, this time with Red Tails and Star Wars Rebels star David Oyelowo in the lead role.
Disney is reviving a cult classic favorite, The Rocketeer, with a new Disney+ movie titled The Return of the Rocketeer. David and Jessica Oyelowo are producing under their Yoruba Saxon banner. The project, written by Ed Ricourt, will also be a possible starring project for the Selma actor.
The original movie, released in 1991, was directed by Joe Johnston and adapted from Dave Stevens’ graphic novel. In that film, which made close to $47 million at the domestic box office and became a fan fave for the studio, a young pilot stumbles onto a prototype jetpack that allows him to become a high-flying masked hero.
The Return of the Rocketeer will have an all-new creative directive, with Ricourt’s story focusing on a retired Tuskegee airman who takes up the Rocketeer mantle.
