In the midst of all the hysteria surrounding DC's recent Billion Dollar Baby; Aquaman, there is one man whose wall I’d like to be a fly on. David Sandberg is the Director of the next DCEU installment - Shazam, and it would be safe to assume that he’s wondered how well his own upcoming picture will be received. Aquaman's success has innocuously put the Shazam Director and everybody associated with that project under some sort of pressure. On one hand it is great to see a fellow ‘underdog’ of the franchise do so well, while on the other, a precedence has been set for Shazam and every other upcoming DC film. You can just picture the fat cats at Warner now talking about their next potential sleeper hit, and on paper, they might not be too far off.
Shazam (previously known as Captain Marvel) is one of the oldest and more popular comic characters, and if James Wan could make Aquaman so successful, then certainly Sandberg should be able to come up with similar goods, right? Wrong! The possibility of Shazam reaching the one billion mark is highly unlikely. However, Aquaman’s success has now given it a decent springboard in interest. Fans and critics who had all but given up on the DCEU have been given hope that the future of the Universe is perhaps an exciting and viable one, and if Shazam turns out to be a box office success and more importantly a hit with the audience, it wouldn’t be farther from the truth.
A run of critically bashed films, capped up with Justice League’s relatively dismal Box Office performance has had serious ramifications on the ongoing future of the DC extended Universe. Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill’s ongoing reign as Batman and Superman respectively, are still uncertain, and the latter had made the news last year after talks broke down concerning a cameo in the Shazam movie. It’s still rumored that Cavill’s contract to play the big blue boy scout is still intact, and if that’s true, and both parties were able to reach a compromise regarding a feature, it would go a long way in salvaging the DCEU, not to mention giving Shazam some street cred.
James Wan had the luxury of time to bring his vision to life, combine that with a larger than life lead, a solid supporting cast, and Aquaman’s previous appearances in both Batman vs Superman (2016) and Justice League (2017) and you could say he had a fair chance of making a successful film. Sandberg hasn’t been so lucky in terms of time, with Shazam being announced in October 2017, with Zachary Levi cast as the lead. He faces the unenviable task of making a relatively unknown Superhero to the casual movie audience a financial and critical success. The concept of a teenage boy who turns into a muscled, superpowered adult in one magic word might not be the most appealing gig to pull off, but we’ve seen less unlikely underdogs become pop culture successes.
While both Shazam and Aquaman, have their origins steeped in mythology, they are of two very different worlds, two different characters that will require very different translations. Arthur Curry’s origin story took us on a trip to the beautiful underwater world of Atlantis while fusing elements of sci-fi, family, politics and vengeance, while Shazam’s will be taking place in less exotic locations and exploring the life of an average kid who transforms into an overpowered man-child by uttering a magic word. It probably sounds less magical when put like that, but the magic lies in the fact that Shazam’s existence is simply a testament to that question every young and old comic book fan has asked his friends time and time again, what would you do if you had powers like Superman? It might seem a bit counter-intuitive to place a key entry of a struggling franchise in the hands of a Director who only has 2 feature films under his belt (Lights Out [2016], Annabelle: Creation [2017]), but Sandberg might turn out to be the exact man for the job, who better to cheer an Underdog like an Underdog eh?
Like Aquaman before it, the success of Shazam lies in a total commitment to the character; Shazam’s sense of pure innocence, childish humour, immaturity and goofy heroics lies at the heart of this, strip that away and he’s just another Superman wannabe. Luckily Sandberg seems to understand this, judging by the trailers and marketing thus far. If he is given the kind of confidence and support James Wan received from the studio, and the Warner bigwigs stay their tinkering hands, we might just end up with something that hits the mark, and a Director's Cut that makes it to the theaters.
With the relative box office successes of their last two superhero solo outings; Aquaman ($1.02b) and Wonder Woman ($821m), and in an era where Superhero movies rack up to $600m - $700m on the average, Shazam would at least, have to rack up similar numbers in worldwide earnings to be considered successful by Warner. An achievable feat for the champion of the gods, wouldn't you say?
Comments
Post a Comment