It hasn’t been too clear as to who New Line was going to put in charge of directing Dwane Johnson in ‘Shazam‘ but the studio appears to have Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg (‘Lights Out’,’Annabelle 2′) in their sights. If a deal is struck, the director will be working off of a script by Henry Gayden (‘Earth to Echo’,’Zombie Roadkill’) that will see Johnson cast as an anti-hero who will eventually have his own spin-off film. Said film will be in development at the same time so we’d probably get more details sooner than later.
Sandberg is an interesting choice as he hasn’t done much in the way of mainstream outside of horror and ‘Shazam’ isn’t a character that you would usually see fitting anywhere close to that genre. Marvel got away with it by having Scott Derrickson directing ‘Doctor Strange, ‘ but as the Sorcerer Supreme tends to fight demons and whatnot, it seemed like a good fit.
The character of Shazam was first introduced in 1940’s ‘Whiz Comics’ #2 and actually was a teen named Billy Batson who could turn into Shazam when he uttered the name that gives him “the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Aries, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury.” Black Adam is the villain in the film who will become an anti-hero of sorts and clearly will have redemption or a solid build up by the movie’s end to go out on his own as a hero.
While ‘Shazam’ is generally a more lighthearted comic, the inclusion of Black Adam could be why Sandberg is a good choice. We’ve seen the villain turned hero have quite a checkered past though it still feels a little out of place for the director who doesn’t have a large enough body of work to judge his non-horror efforts from.
Are you looking forward to ‘Shazam’? Did you enjoy Sandberg’s work and feel he’ll be able to do the character justice? Share your thoughts below!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
