Another Writer Tackles Captain Marvel for 'Shazam!'

DC Comics is still trying to get Shazam! off the ground, and now the studio has handed the script over to Bill Birch, late of the screenplay for One Finger Salute to see if Captain Marvel can finally cut through.

Methinks the issue might be with the property. I mean, if John August and William Goldman can't separately come up with ideas you're happy with...that's a you a problem, not a them problem. Have no doubt, though, Warner Bros. and DC will cram this sucker into some kind of neat packaging for a predetermined release date soon enough. Peter Segal, who directed Get Smart most recently, is still signed on to direct, although there's no word in the Variety report about whether or not Dwayne Johnson will still play the bad guy, Black Adam, if he might instead segue into the hero role, or if he's involved at all.

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Writer John August Says 'Shazam!' is Dead

If you're wondering what's up with Shazam!, please take a seat in the John August section. August, the screenwriter of Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and the Charlie's Angels movies, among others, was hired about two years ago to write an adaptation of the Captain Marvel comic book, also known as Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam, keeping much of its tradition in tact. Or at least that's how it was being reported, more or less.

But now on his blog, August reports that Shazam! is no more, this after a series of rewrites that saw the direction of the project change without his influence. Chronicling the entire life of the project, August writes:

"I was under contract to deliver one more draft. So I took them at their (written) word and delivered what they said they wanted: a much harder movie, with a lot more Black Adam. This wasn’t “Big, with super powers” anymore. It was Black Adam versus Captain Marvel, with a considerable push into dark territory and liminal badlands like Nanda Parbat. It wasn’t the action-comedy I’d signed on to write, but it was a movie I could envision getting made. The producer and director liked it, and turned it in to the studio while I was in France. By the time I got back, the project was dead. 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."

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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.

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