Geoff Johns Confirms Black Adam will not be in SHAZAM! REAL NEWS! (Part 3)

This is the third part of the three-part blog update based on the news of the past few days.

When last we left our story, we had mentioned that Dwayne Johnson (the actor whose pro wrestling persona is known as "The Rock") had referred to the hero in the upcoming DC movie "Shazam!" as "Captain Marvel." Whether this was a slip of the tongue, as DC may be using the New 52 version of the character, whose name is "Shazam," as the hero, or a reveal that the hero will be some version of the original Captain Marvel, is still undetermined, and was not the point of the comment. The point was that the plan for what had originally been announced (Johnson appearing as Black Adam in "Shazam!") had been changed:

"What we decided to do was to create a scenario where Black Adam has his stand-alone movie, and Captain Marvel, Shazam, has his stand-alone movie," he told MTV. "We're building our world that way, and then we can come together at some point."

So that was back in April. Of course, the Interwebs being what they are, what this exactly meant had swirled around, so apparently someone had to get the situation clarified. Thus, it should not be a surprise that just a couple of days ago, CinemaBlend posted an article titled "DC Sets the Record Straight on The Rock Appearing in Shazam." In this article they posted the following quotation:

"We haven't announced any casting yet. But Dwayne isn't going to be in this movie. He's still doing Black Adam, but he won't be in Shazam!"

This was from an interview on Yahoo movies earlier that day. Interestingly, this article is weighing in that the hero in the movie will be named "Shazam."

Reasons for this have been stated to include things about Johnson' schedule and so forth, which is reasonable, considering how freakin' busy the guy is. But what this also means is that what could have been potentially the biggest attraction of the "Shazam!" movie is now not a part of it. Consipiracy theorists could easily rave that this is another way of DC screwing over the character. Neither Dr. Sivana nor Mr. Mind, Captain Marvel's two other archest enemies, may not carry the same degree of gravitas into a movie. They certainly would not be able to put up the same kind of physical challenge (barring the introduction of a juiced-up Magnificus Sivana or Mr. Mind commanding Mr. Atom against the World's Mightiest Mortal). Perhaps we could say that the announcement and all the business towards the production of a "Shazam!" movie was just a ploy to lure Johnson to be in a DC movie, and now that he is not going to be in "Shazam!" the big-screen dreams of the Big Red Cheese will go the way of the previous versions of the movie that died in pre-production hell in the '00's

We will see...

So to wrap up the news for the week (much of which happens to be coming out of San Diego Comic Con):

The DC movie "Shazam!" has been announced to start filming in February 2018.

David F. Sandberg has been announced to direct it.

Dwayne Johnson's portrayal of the character Black Adam has been announced to not be in it.

Digest and comment, folks!

PS: Here is a bonus link to Hollywood Reporter's "exclusive" announcement of all this news, complete with an exciting video!

What Does The Rock Know About Black Adam?

(The above image is linked from Muscle & Fitness' article announcing Dwayne Johnson's role as Black Adam in the upcoming "Shazam!" movie.)

Now this is interesting. In this interview, Dwayne Johnson reveals that he has been involved with the character of Black Adam and preparing for the role for “eight years.” That places the beginning of his relationship with the character right about the time that there were rumors circulating about him playing the hero of DC's movie about the character marketed under the trademark “Shazam!”, the original Captain Marvel.

What with the "Shazam!" movie announced to be released on April 5, 2019 (and there being a surprisingly well-informed and insightful article from Comic Book Resources), this seems like as good a time as ever the very briefly recap the history of this actor and this franchise.

Remember, there were lots of rumors going around back in those heady days of the mid '00's, as the whole superhero-movie thing was starting to heat up. "Shazam!" was being talked about as early as 2003, and was still a going concern as the decade progressed. No fewer than three scripts were written or being worked on by folks such as William Goldman and John August and at least two different directors were attached to the project, Peter Segal being the latest. Jake Gyllenhaal was at one time rumored to be playing the hero, but that proved to be a hoax. Brandon Molale promoted himself for the role very heavily at the time, there was even a MySpace (remember MySpace?) page and a fan club pushing for it.

Back in '07 MTV Movie Blogs ran a poll. Rumors were flying that Dwayne Johnson, then more popularly known as the pro wrestler “The Rock,” would be playing Captain Marvel. Johnson even came forth and said that people were talking to him about being in the upcoming “Shazam!” movie (this was before the “New 52” reboot in which the hero trademarked under the label “Shazam!” now actually goes by that name). A lot of people, however thought that he would be even better as Black Adam, the evil version of the World's Mightiest Mortal from the Middle East 5,000 years ago who had become the toughest bad guy in the DC universe). Some said this for racial reasons (the Big Red Cheese has always been depicted as Caucasian, and Johnson is a black-Samoan mix), and some just would rather see him as the Bad Guy. Johnson has played a villainous Middle-Eastern monarch before (as the Scorpion King in “The Mummy Returns”), so why not?

So Johnson and MTV Blogs put the question to the fans: who would you rather see Johnson as: Captain Marvel or Black Adam? (http://www.mtv.com/news/1570423/the-rocks-role-in-shazam-should-he-be-good-or-evil-you-decide/ http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2007/09/24/weigh-in-who-should-the-rock-play-in-shazam/) The answer was overwhelming: Black Adam, by 86% of the vote.

So Johnson humbly and good naturedly accepted the fans' verdict, admitted that he did not know much about the character, and said he would be happy to talk with the filmmakers about playing the role (http://www.mtv.com/news/1573336/the-rock-put-his-shazam-role-to-a-vote-and-the-results-are-evil/ http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2007/09/24/weigh-in-who-should-the-rock-play-in-shazam/). In the succeeding months, dedicated fans of the World's Mightiest Mortal were watching every move by Johnson and Peter Segal to see if they could get a hint of what the movie, and Johnson's performance and chemistry with Segal, would be like. Segal's “Get Smart” got particular attention, being as it was a comedy/action movie involving both of these people.

Interestingly, Michael Uslan, the producer of the Shazam! Project and longtime fan of the hero, told me that he had not heard about this. So either Johnson was making it up about talking to people about this, someone wasn't telling Uslan what was going on, or Uslan had a reason to keep some things on the downlow.

But by 2010 news and activity about the project had slowed down, and by the time of this interview (http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/01/12/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-on-shazam-status-and-black-adam/, and this report of it http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/markcassidycbm/news/?a=13722) it was pretty much dead.

In late 2014, however, Johnson started dropping hints that he would be in a superhero movie. By this time the “clickbait” phenomena was in full swing, and every psuedo-news website and geek-fanboy blogger with pretensions to journalistic credibility and the need for hit counts ran with the story, despite the dearth of information about the project and sometimes embarrassing lack of knowledge of the character (this alleged “investigation” from Entertainment Weekly, for instance, gets remarkable mileage out of speculation and groundless “insight.” And their conclusion turned out to be incorrect. http://www.ew.com/article/2014/08/19/dwayne-johnson-shazam-rock-black-adam).

Dwayne Johnson speaks authoritatively about the character and about superhero mythology these days. He refers to BA as an “anti-hero” who used to be a slave and at one point says that superheroes are usually “born into” greatness. This reveals a shallow surfaceness of his research. The bit about BA having been a slave is very recent in the development of his character, and there are plenty of famous superheroes who were not “born in to greatness” (Superman and Wonder Woman were, for sure, but Spider-Man, Captain America, and the original Captain Marvel himself, for instance, were not). Kudos to Johnson, however, for at least trying to give the impression of comic book super-characters as being something worth taking seriously.

Johnson is also very conscientiously maintaining the party line about the name of the hero. I have yet to hear him utter the name “Captain Marvel” in his interviews since he started with the hints and intimations in 2014. While he did say “Captain Marvel” in interviews back in 2007, he is showing himself a team player and professional spokesperson by staying up to date with the marketing of the hero of the Shazam franchise.

And now it is officially obvious...

Dwayne Johnson himself has just hit Twitter with the news that he will be playng Black Adam in an upcoming "Shazam!" motion picture, making official years of rumors, dreams, teases, and fears.

pic.twitter.com/Qk55eNf3R7

(In case you don't know, Black Adam is one of Captain Marvel's primary adversaries. In his original incarnation, he was a man in ancient Egypt who was given the same powers by the same wizard as Captain Marvel, but who used them to kill the pharaoh and seize the throne. He was banished to the farthest star, took 5,000 years to fly back, and then was defeated by the Marvel Family. In his more recent interpretation, he was the leader of the nation of Kandaq in ancient times, again with the same powers from the same wizard as Captain Marvel, before being banished, and returned to rule the nation again, was a hero for a time, but proved to be a violent, unstoppable psychopath when his wife was killed. He is a character of Superman-level powers and Machiavellian morality with no qualms about killing or destroying anything that gets in his way.)

This may be the closest the movie has come to being made. The earliest I can remember the movie being talked about was 2003. There was a script by William Goldman that was rejected and others written, Peter Segal was supposed to direct it and then, some years later, said it was not gonna happen, Jake Gyllenhall was rumored to be cast as the hero, and then, somewhere in there, was a poll by MTV asking whether Mr. Johnson (aka "The Rock" of WWE fame) should play Captain Marvel or Black Adam. The result was overwhelmingly in favor of Black Adam.

Mr. Johnson has been teasing us for the past couple of months, saying that he was supposed to play a character, "say the word," that it could be Shazam or Black Adam, that it would be an anti hero, and of course that fans weighed in with the passion of a UN debate, saying that because of his looks he should play Black Adam, that we should not consider race, that he was perfect to play a young kid in a man's body due to his recent comedy work, That he would be a great villain, that he would be a lousy villain, that Shazam is not an anti-hero, but Black Adam is, that his acting sucks, that he ought to play John Steward (Green Lantern), or Lobo, and of course all the confusion about whether the hero's name  was "Shazam" or "Captain Marvel," and the attendant misinformation about the history of the character, the lawsuit, the trademark, etc. And I am guilty of sending maybe too much time trying to set the record straight about all that history stuff.

Well, here we go again. The news is now bigger, it will hit more mainstream news outlets, and the freaks will come out of the woodwork. Perhaps this will bring more people to read up the old Captain Marvel stories, which were actually pretty good. Personally, I think that the stories drawn by Don Newton published as a backup feature in "World's Finest" comics in the late 1970's and early '80's are an under appreciated body of work and worthy of rediscovery.

It's also possible that some people may check out Marvel Comics' many Captain Marvels, not knowing the difference, if the name "Captain Marvel" gets out there in the public attached to this project. That is, of course, why DC has no interest in attaching the name "Captain Marvel" to this project. And so the confusion continues.

My one big question is this: Will the production be based on the "New 52" reboot of the character, named "Shazam" (if you don't know, DC Comics rebooted their entire universe of characters in 2012, and took their character that had been named "Captain Marvel" and changed his costume a bit, made a few alterations to his origin, and changed his name to "Shazam"), or on a version of the classic character named "Captain Marvel" (of whom there have actually been at least four distinct versions, the most recently popular of which first appeared in 1993 and was published in the graphic novel and ongoing series "Power of Shazam!"). Which version they choose will probably define which name they actually use for the character.

There is a lot of creative risk involved in this upcoming movie. The original stories from Fawcett Publications had an elusively light touch while, in their best moments, being brilliantly efficient, well-told stories. It took a while for DC Comics to find its stride, but once it did, also told well-built stories with a light, whimsical touch. In these stories real-life concerns, such as the psychological effects of a boy and a hero sharing the same memories but having different personalities, or the effects of a transformational bolt of lightning on the surrounding area, were not considered. It was magic! It's a comic book! In the "Power of Shazam!" stories, Captain Marvel had the mind of Billy Batson, and so the angle of the writing was about how the young boy dealt with being a hero. Being the most recently popular interpretation of the character, that is likely to be the direction the story will go, but that is a difficult thing to get right. "Freaky Friday" and Big" explored similar territory, becoming successful comedies, but will the "Shazam" movie be a comedy.

"Whimsy," as opposed to broad comedy, is a tough genre in which to write, not to mention act. This movie has the unenviable task of pleasing a small audience of fans while reaching the mainstream. Comic book movies have been getting better and better lately, listening to the fans and trusting the material. But the material of Captain Marvel is so elusive, many fans of his current incarnation have little experience with his classic version. I have a hard time envisioning a movie that will serve the modern interpretations, either PoS or New 52, that will satisfy me as a fan of the classic version. If a good movie is made, I will be satisfied that another good superhero movie is made, and appreciate it on that level, taking it on its own terms. But I doubt it will serve the original character.

We will see.

UPDATE: Here is the fluff piece from ComicBookResources spreading the word...http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=55260

Funny Papers and Moving Pictures

Meanwhile, Jeff Smith, award winning creator of the Bone comic book series, has created a new Shazam story, again rebooting the original Captain Marvel franchise, in a mini-series using the title of the old Fawcett serial, “Monster Society of Evil.” Though he made his own adjustments to the canon, for instance making Mary Batson a much younger sister, and Mary Marvel the same apparent age as Mary Batson, and making Tawky Tawny a magical changeling whom Billy knew as a homeless man, and making Mr. Mind a monstrous alien, rather than a brilliant evil little worm, his version did prove that DC is willing to give Captain Marvel a chance at something with a look and feel that is more light-hearted, youth-oriented, and with a more “cartoony” drawing style. This willingness has been extended to a new book by Mike Kunkel, Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! In DC Comics' Johnny DC youth-oriented line.

There has also been, for the past few years, a Shazam! movie on the slow track for production at New Line Pictures with Michel Uslan producing. The script has gone through several writers, including William Goldman and Joel Coen & Alex Soklow. Currently John August is writing the script, with Peter Segal signed to direct. Movies based on comic book characters have boomed lately. The quality and popularity of comic book-inspired motion pictures has been notoriously hit-and-miss since the Superman movie of 1978, but several low-budget movies based on independent characters in the early 1990's proved that when done with respect for the source material, a movie based on a comic book can be good and find its audience. Since then, the recipe for success has been to listen to the fans and find a producer-writer-director team that will serve the material well, rather than simply treat the material as a property to exploit. New Line has been working with PC Hamerlinck, publisher of Fawcett Collectors of America.

In a recent example of serving the audience, MTV Blogs appears to have influenced the casting of at least one character. Rumors had arisen years ago that Dwayne Johnson, the pro wrestler known as The Rock, would play the Big Red Cheese. Fan response was largely negative, some because they doubted his acting ability, some simply because Captain Marvel was never portrayed as half black-half Samoan. Some (including Yours Truly) suggested that he might be better as Black Adam. In late 2007, MTV Blogs held a survey asking whether Johnson should play Captain Marvel or Black Adm. The result was an overwhelming response in favor of Black Adam. So Johnson went public saying he would listen to the fans and would be glad to talk with New Line about playing Black Adam.

Next: Marvel...The Return