Captain Marvel Goes Really Old School

The upcoming Captain Marvel movie is going back to the beginning. Now titled Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam, the film will cover the origin story of Captain Marvel. "There've been several incarnations [of the origin story]," said director Peter Segal, who told SciFi, "And there's a new incarnation about how Billy has to win the approval of the individual gods before he can gain their powers, and that's a completely different take from the original. So, once again, we're staying very faithful to the source material, and we're just continuing to work and try to make the script as good as it can be." The "we" in "we're staying faithful" includes John August, the talented screenwriter who just confirmed himself for juggling this script with Dark Shadows. This will be another DC Comics adaptation, although it sounds like it won't be nearly as dark as that brand's current offering, Christopher Nolan's Batman series. It's an important distinction, too. The comic deals with a boy who becomes a strapping superhero just by saying "Shazam!" Hard to see where a dark undercurrent can fit itself in there. Segal says he loves the origin story they're dealing with and that, much like his soon-to-be-released Get Smart, "you have to embrace [the source material]. You can't look at it as a fixer-upper." I suppose it remains to be seen whether or not this will be aimed at a younger or more family-oriented crowd, but it sounds like it based on Segal's commitment to the original comic rather than going with one of the many updates. Segal spends a little time in the SciFi interview discussing the casting of Captain Marvel, denying that Patrick Warburton is up for the role. "I love him, and I'm working with him right now. Never talked about that particular role with him. There have been a lot of rumors about [Captain Marvel]--and it's fun for me to read all the rumors. Not that Patrick wouldn't be good for it, but we have not spoken." Segal's Get Smart cast member Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been quasi-confirmed for the role of the villain, Black Adam, but based on his recent success with the family film The Game Plan (not to mention future flicks in the same vein like Race to Witch Mountain and The Tooth Fairy), he might be a better pick as Captain Marvel after all if this big screen version does wind up gunning for the live-action family adventure slot.

Comments

[Will]

Wasn't there a contest to see if the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson should be the good guy or the bad guy in this thing?

This one's too wierd...kinda like Justice League.

I need more "Thomas Crown Affair 2: The Burger King Incident" news...

[hcb]

More than you want to know

Captain Marvel has always been the hardest character to revamp largely because so much of the character's original appeal was tied to the simplicity of the stories as drawn by CC Beck (and Pete Costanza, Kurt Schaffenberger--the guys who emulated the style)--there's a magic jokey quality to the character with weird relatives, talking tigers, evil worms, etc.

And Marvel always looked like Fred MacMurray, even before MacMurray played a superhero in a dream sequence in No Time For Love.

Actually, if memory serves, Jack Kirby had a hand in designing Marvel, though I might be wrong. Tom Tyler played Marvel in a serial, and the flying scenes were great though the rest was pretty lame. Elvis took a lot of inspiration from Captain Marvel Jr., including his costumes.

The most amazing thing to come out of Marvel was the British comic Marvelman (Miracleman in the US), which Alan Moore relaunched (succeeded by Neil Gaiman)--maybe, along with Watchmen and Whatever Happened To The Man Of Steel, the best thing Moore ever did, which is saying something.

I think The Incredibles is pretty close in spirit to Marvel--I'd trust Brad Bird with a Marvel movie.