potential as a franchise. Universal retained film rights to the original TV show, while Dimension purchased the rights to the Cyborg novel, as well as Caidin's three other novels in the series: Operation Nuke, High Crystal and Cyborg IV. Larry Gordon and Scott Faye were going to produce with Paul Rosenberg's Collision Entertainment. Smith's screenplay was later adapted for The Bionic Man, an ongoing comic book series launched in 2011 by Dynamite Comics. In October 2002, Trevor Sands was hired to write a new screenplay, titled The Six Billion Dollar Man, but Dimension scrapped it when actor Jim Carrey pitched a comedic take on the material for him to star in, with Scot Armstrong as writer and Todd Phillips as director/co-writer. Filming was expected to begin in 2004. In a July 2006 interview at Comic Con, Richard Anderson (who played Oscar Goldman in the series) stated that he was involved with producing a movie of the series, but the rights were at the time in litigation between Miramax and Universal. On November 6, 2014, it was announced that a feature film, tentatively titled The Six Billion Dollar Man, would go into production. Mark Wahlberg was set to play Colonel Steve Austin, with Peter Berg as director. Filming was to begin in early 2015, for a theatrical release the following year. On November 2, 2015 it was reported that Berg had left the film and had been replaced by Damian Szifron, who will also write the film. Filming was to begin in September 2016 with a December 22, 2017 release date. In December 2017, The Weinstein Company sold the film's rights to Warner Bros. As of January 2018, they hoped to start filming the movie in mid 2018. In April 2018, they set an early to mid 2019 release for the film. The film was moved to June 5, 2020 until Wonder Woman 1984 took over the release date, and in April 2019, Travis Knight and Bill Dubuque replaced Szifron as director and writer. Cultural influence In Brazil, under the military dictatorship, some important government officials, previously elected by direct suffrage, were appointed by the president, or elected indirectly, out of a shortlist picked by the president. These politicians were called "bionic" (biônicos), due to the series' popularity, and the association with the perceived extraordinary power and influence held by the appointed officials. Between 1964 and 1985, Brazil came to have