Cameras roll on new DC Comics movie Shazam!
The next movie to roll cameras in the DC Comics extended universe is to be Shazam!
Swedish director David F. Sandberg, of horror hit Lights Out fame, dropped a shot of the clapper board via his Instagram page yesterday – featuring the working title Franklin – to confirm the start of production.
According to Sandberg, the movie will break from the sombre moods of Justice League and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, in favour of something a bit more light-hearted.
Zachary Levi plays the superhero, who is transformed from a boy – played by Asher Angel – into a grown-up superhero by an ancient wizard after uttering the magical word ‘shazam’.
Levi has likened the movie to the superhero world’s answer to Tom Hanks classic Big.
Brit actor Mark Strong will be returning to the DC fold, following his turn in Green Lantern, to play the villain.
“’I’m playing an evil bastard called Doctor Sivana, they are always the best characters to play, the most fun. I was Sinestro in Green Lantern, which I thought was a rather good film, but it didn’t do what they wanted,” he said.
“So I feel like I’ve got unfinished business in the DC world. I played a pretty evil character in that, and he was meant to get even worse in the second one but that never happened, but I think I’m going to get the chance to do that in Shazam!, I hope so.”
The movie will follow James Wan’s Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa as the aquatic superhero, due out in December this year.
Shazam! lands in April, 2019.
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