Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam

[Space Pirate Roberts]

From AICN

John August screams SHAZAM! and turns into a beefy comic-adapting screenwriter!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. John August (GO, BIG FISH) is now penning the adaptation of DC Comics' SHAZAM! for New Line.

If you don't know, the story is about little Billy Batson who discovers he can be a superhero, like the ones he reads about in comics, if he shouts the phrase SHAZAM!

August didn't grow up with the books, but upon reading the series he said he's fallen in love with the concept of a teenage comic book reader learning how to be a Superhero from the comics he reads. Geoff Johns has met with August about the project, helping the newbie "idiot check" and make sure they're staying true to the book.

I didn't grow up with this book, so I have no real feelings one way or the other. The concept has always been cool and the gold lightning bolt on red is a great, striking superhero image, so why not? Could be fun, no?

Man, I hope somebody tells them the main character has to be a KID. Not a teen, a kid. SHAZAM is about youthful innocence, not cynicism and irony.

[Josh]

Teenagers are kids.

[Doc Holliday]

kids with hairy privates.

[Bacon McShig]

Read the Dini/Ross book "The Power of Hope". That's an okay age for him.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

Gach, they're considering Jake Gyllenhal. Nothing against him as an actor, but Captain Marvel is supposed to be a mountain of a man. The look won't work if it's an average-size dude in the suit (see: Brandon Routh... but even moreso in this case).

[Space Pirate Roberts]

Aaaaaaaaand... crisis averted.

[youandwhosearmy]

This is gonna be weird since Captain Marvel is always MVP in the big group crossover books (Crisis, Kingdom Come, That weird thing where the joker made all the heroes sell their souls to the devil) but is pretty fucking lame in everything else.

Still I can totally see this being filmed in a Sky Captain kind of way and having some style.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

SHH:

Peter Segal Talks Shazam!
Source: MTV
May 2, 2007


MTV chatted with Shazam! director Peter Segal about the Jake Gyllenhaal rumor and the adaptation:

"As soon as we signed John August to write it, the next day we saw on the Internet that Jake Gyllenhaal would be a great Captain Marvel and we were already in negotiations with him," laughed director Peter Segal ("50 First Dates") last week. "I said, 'Well, he'd be great, but we've literally just signed the writer!' " Nevertheless, Segal said all is full steam ahead for his big-budget take on one of comicdom's oldest heroes (originally created in 1939), the catchphrase-spewing Captain Marvel. "It's like a combination of 'Big' and 'Superman,' " the comedy director said of the tone he's aiming to capture. "It's a 13-year-old boy who, when he says the word 'Shazam!,' he gets the powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Mercury and Achilles. So basically, he can fly, he has superpowers, but when he morphs into a 28-year-old superhero, on the inside he's still 13. So, you get that quality of what Tom Hanks brought to 'Big,' but you also have a kick-ass superhero." The film is being produced by New Line Cinema, and Segal promised it won't be anything like the laughably bad 1970s live-action show (seriously, Google it). "No, we're not going for the cheesy," Segal promised. "I looked at that myself, and I thought, 'The guy with the boots and the red suit — could we have some fun with this?' but we're going to be really loyal to the origin of the comic book, then definitely liven it up."

[James]

Ah, the old "13-year-old in adult's body" thing that almost every single Shazam! comic writer went out of their way to avoid. I was hoping they could avoid the obvious mistakes.

James

[VIDEODROME]

Hrm. I had the impression that the more he used this power he was less like a kid mentally when he was Capt. Marvel.


Anyway it seems like there was a rumor that PRIME would become a movie but that fell through. Who knows what might happen with this one.