Although a lot has been written about the
Shazam! film to be directed by Peter Segal, and co-starring the Rock as Captain Marvel's arch-foe, Black Adam, the project now seems to be dead. John August, who wrote the script for the film, recently wrote on his
blog that after extensive studio reworking of the concept, the project is now not happening.
By "dead", August offered the following explanation:
By "dead," I mean that it won't be happening. I don't think it's on the studio's radar at all. It may come back in another incarnation, with another writer, but I can say with considerable certainty that it won't be the version I developed
In the comics, Captain Marvel is a character whose powers are similar to Superman's, but with a considerably different origin. Captain Marvel is really Billy Batson, a kid (sometimes written as young as seven or eight, sometimes written as a teenager), who transforms into the World's Mightiest Mortal, Captain Marvel, when he says the name of the wizard Shazam, who gave him his powers. Captain Marvel's greatest enemy, Black Adam, is a former champion of Shazam's from ancient Egypt.
August describes in great detail how the film that was originally planned was very much an action-comedy, focusing a lot on Billy's discovering his abilities, plus his coping with transforming from a child to an adult man - as August phrases it, "
Big with super powers". However the studio steadily pushed to transform it into a higher-action and darker film. August surmises that this may have had something to do with the success of
The Dark Knight, and the box-office failure of
Speed Racer.
It's fascinating reading, and disappointing news for comic book fans. To read August's full entry
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42 Comments
11 Comments
All I'm saying is that seriousness is a powerful tool in a director's arsenal and can have a deep impact on the audience, but it must also be balanced with a good plot and fascinating characters because the most recent Punisher movie is certainly dark, or trying to be dark, yet it flopped. So yes, I am not ALL for films to go dark.
When it comes to fantasy films, the disadvantage is that you are already suspending belief because some aspects are too fantastical. This is why darkness AND MANY OTHER ELEMENTS must be used TOGETHER to ensure a great film, or else, people won't give the film the attention or acclaim it deserves.
Shrek is fantastical yet a comedy because that is how it is represented on film, and this is how we are meant to interpret the movie. If we took Shrek 1 or 2 seriously, it would not garner the attention it did, because the use of fantasy would be just too unrealistic for the audience. If The Dark Knight was less serious and less dark, it would becomes like the Schumacher series, or its 60's tv series counterpart, and we would not see TDK as we see it now.