SHAZAM FOOTAGE LEAKED! (I think...really?)

Well, the production has wrapped, and no doubt the various editors and special effects people are  working their little tails off trying to make the new "SHAZAM!" movie as awesome as possible, and of course the PR department is working every bit as hard to make everyone THINK that it is as awesome as possible.

So we got these pictures so far...

 

...which are essentially confirming what has been said about what this movie will be since the beginning: "Big" with superheroes (though there was one article that did not catch the "Big" was a movie title and presented the quotation as "...it's big with superheroes.").

Sidenote: The director, David F. Sandberg, used Instagram to post cryptic pictures allegedly symbolizing the progress of his Journey as he researched and planned for the making of this movie. I wonder if the Coke cans in these pictures (below) had anything to to with the above scene?

As a further sidenote, I must have missed this particular picture on Sandberg's Instagram. I was watching them the bet that I could, and was very heartened by the presence of Fawcett publications and action figures of the classic Captain Marvel. It made me think that maybe this movie would be about the original Captain Marvel, and not this New 52 character named "Shazam." Had I seen the picture above, I would have known those hopes were futile.

In any event, that oft-repeated line, "'Big' with superheroes," kept on hitting me. The original Captain MArvel,. of which I am a fan, was not a boy in a grown-up's body, but ever since Roy Thomas created "SHAZAM! A New Beginning" after the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" in 1986, that has been the dominant interpretation of the hero. Sometimes it has led to some interesting dramatic story twists and turns, like in DC's "Underworld Unleashed" miniseries, "JSA" series from the 1990's, and "Young Justice" animated series.

But all too often it has been played for goofy humor, starting with Keith Giffen's and Kevin McGuire's post-"Crisis" "Justice League."

So now. apparently, someone showed some preview footage of the new movie in Ukraine, and thanks to the magic of the Internet (through which Asher Angel, who plays Billy Batson shared it), we can see it!

https://twitter.com/sonofjody/status/1018852311441895424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1018852311441895424&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.comicbookmovie.com%2Fshazam%2Fshazam-battles-doctor-sivana-in-this-leaked-footage-from-the-dc-movie-a162139

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE HERO IS DOING THE "BIG" PIANO DANCE!

So that's why they have been harping on that early Tom Hanks movie! So that when people saw this scene they would get the pop-culture reference!

But I really think that is a cheap joke. Aside from the fact that F.A.O. Schwartz, the world-famous toy store tin which the original scene took place, is not there any more, I will positively cringe if I have to watch the Zachary Levy as the hero dancing on a floor piano in a toy store!

I was ready to accept that this character had a different name from the original hero. He was different enough that it was better that he not be named "Captain Marvel." But now...I just don't know if I can take it.

In any event, here is the rest of the footage...

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1018853705469136898

So we see the Cola scene, some characters flying through the air as if hurled by the Force, and Mark Strong as Sivana catching the hero's punch. We also see flashes of the original New 52 story that introduced this character.

This all confirms that this is an adaptation of the New 52 story, with Sivana's role enlarged to make up for the lack of Black Adam. It's all too brief to tell for sure how good it will look in its final form., andin the end, this film willbe judged on its execution.

Hurry up and watch these clips, because Asher says he will be taking them down soon!

You can see the full article from ComicBookMovie here.

So what do you think of these clips? Post your impressions below and subscribe to this blog for the most insightful updates on the many different Captain Marvels!

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