The Shazam movie has seen some ups and downs, and currently is settling on down. The project is officially stalled.
August says the project is now dead in the water after several re-writes, most of which came about after the studio wanted him to take the film from a lighter action-comedy to something much darker (a la The Dark Knight). And regarding the recent news that Segal would be directing, August notes that “press releases often have little relationship to reality.” He does admit, though, that the movie may still happen … just not with him onboard and not anytime soon.
I can’t say that I have ever been much of a Captain Marvel fan, but I had thought that Johnson was the physical embodiment of Black Adam and I was looking forward to seeing him in the role.
However, the proposed plot was to make this more of a light hearted comedy. So as it stands, I am somewhat relieved to hear that they are not going to do a “kid turns into adult superhero” plot. The source material does have little Billy Batson transformed into Captain Marvel when he utters the word SHAZAM, thereby granting him the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the Courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. When he became Captain Marvel he did not have the mind of a child. But that is how they wanted to play out his story in August’s version.
This is not quite on the same level of relief knowing that Jack Black would no longer be Green Lantern. Not quite, but close.
We may someday see this project re-opened. But its not on the top of my list.
