'Shazam!' director David F. Sandberg makes horror short while 'stuck indoors' due to coronavirus
Shazam! director David F. Sandberg has returned to his horror roots in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, using his time confined to his home to make a short horror film.
The 39-year-old filmmaker was a horror specialist before he took on the Warner Bros superhero adventure and helmed Annabelle: Creation, as well as the 2016 supernatural tale Lights Out.
That film was adapted from a 2013 short he made, starring his wife and creative partner Lotta Losten.
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Losten also stars in the new short, Shadowed, as a woman who is menaced by a series of increasingly terrifying shadows after the lights in her home turn off suddenly.
Sandberg shared the film on Twitter, with the caption: “What else are we going to do while stuck indoors?”
Made a new 3 minute horror short, 'Shadowed', together with @lottalosten because what else are we going to do while stuck indoors.
YouTube: https://t.co/o7EPpTjwpq
Vimeo (often better quality): https://t.co/OYf63PbGbA pic.twitter.com/GPAp8eMQcc— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) April 2, 2020
The terrifying three-minute short has already been viewed more than 25,000 times on YouTube.
Fans have had their curiosity piqued by the new film, with Sandberg pledging to put together a behind the scenes clip soon, showing how he was able to achieve the shadow effects.
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Sandberg built his career on horror shorts, with many of his previous films available to watch on his YouTube channel ponysmasher.
His films were mostly made with zero budget, utilising equipment he already owned as a result of his work in the worlds of animation and documentaries.
Sandberg is currently at work on the script for the sequel to Shazam!, which starred Zachary Levi as the titular hero — alter ego of teenager Billy Batson.
The film was a critical hit and earned a solid $366m (£298m) at the global box office.
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Sandberg told ComicBook earlier this week that the plan had been for Shazam! 2 to begin shooting this year, but that this might have changed as a result of the pandemic.
He said: “Who knows how long this will go on? I mean, it feels like every movie gets delayed now, so we'll see what happens with Shazam!.
“But so far, I've been working on the script. We can still do that, so that's being done and then, yeah, we'll just see in a couple of months how it looks, you know?”
Shazam! 2 is currently set for release in April 2022.
