SHAZAM! Director Compares The Film To ‘80s Movies Like GOONIES, GHOSTBUSTERS, and BACK TO THE FUTURE
Like many of you, I’m super excited to watch DC’s Shazam! The movie looks like it’s going to be a ridiculous amount of fun. The movie has already been compared to Tom Hanks’ Big, but while talking about the tone of the film and how this movie will be set apart from the other superhero and comic book films, director David F. Sandberg went on to compare it to other films of the ‘80s, saying:
“I like to compare it to ‘80s movies, like Goonies, Ghostbusters, and Back to the Future. That sort of like, ‘Oh, it’s a family [film]...kind of.’”
I love that they are doing something completely different with the tone of the film than the other DC films that have been made. The movie is set in the same universe as those other films, but it’s going to feel like it's own standalone movie with its own mythology. To make the connection, though, Freddy’s room is filled with “winks and nods to recent DC films.”
io9 teases the settings of two of the big fight sequences in the film, “One in which the hero fights the bad guy in a toy store filled with DC superhero merch, and another where a big fight takes place at a festive winter carnival, complete with a giant Ferris wheel and dozens of games.”
One thing is very clear, this is not going to be your typical superhero movie.
Asher Angel as Billy Baston, Zachary Levi as Shazam! and Mark Strong as the villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana. Here’s the synopsis:
We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).
When previously talking about playing the character in the interview, Levi explained, “There are two characters that I can think of in all of comic-dom [that actually want to be a superhero]. And it’s Billy Batson and Peter Parker.” He went on to say, “ that I don’t have to restrain myself with the fucking coolness factor is so great. I have to act so little. I just get to be me on so many levels.”
It’s also explained that the main motivation of Billy Batson is that he just wants his mom. As for the villain, Strong offers a bit of insight, saying:
“He is a proper super villain. He gets to fly, he can create electric fields in his hands and fire electricity. I love the whole notion that in his eye he has seven sins that manifest themselves at various points whenever they or he wants them to. So, it’s a good, proper supervillain.”
Shazam! was directed by Annabelle's David F. Sandberg and also Djimon Hounsou as The Wizard, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Ross Butler, Adam Brody, and Michelle Borth.
Shazam! will be released on April 5th, 2019.