16 High-Flying Facts About “The Rocketeer”

Stacy Conradt and Mental_Floss present 16 High-Flying Facts About The Rocketeer.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. IT WAS ORIGINALLY A COMIC BOOK.
In 1982, artist Dave Stevens created a comic book character called The Rocketeer, inspired by pulp characters and series from the 1930s through 1950s. Though originally intended to be a secondary strip in a more popular comic called Starslayer, the quirky character quickly proved his star power. Stevens’ Rocketeer was so popular, in fact, that the movie was optioned just a year later.

5. DISNEY WANTED JOHNNY DEPP FOR THE LEAD ROLE.
Billy Campbell was hired for the starring role after Johnny Depp turned it down—and Campbell’s agent played a part in getting Depp to nix the part. “As it happened, my agent’s office was right next to Johnny Depp’s agent’s office,” Campbell later said. “My agent called me one day all excited and he said, ‘Tracy is about to have a meeting with Johnny about whether to do Rocketeer or not, and she asked me to join in on the meeting. I’ll call you back.’ So, he went in on the meeting and he brilliantly convinced Johnny Depp that this was exactly not the kind of movie that he should be doing.”

Vincent D’Onofrio was also offered the lead at one point, but turned it down because he wasn’t sure it would fit with his image.

15. MORE MOVIES WERE IN THE WORKS.
This news is bittersweet for fans: Before the movie flopped at the box office, a sequel (and maybe even a trilogy) was in the works. “There was a lot of talk of a sequel on June 20, 1991, but there wasn’t any on the 22nd,” Johnston said in 2011.