Friday, August 18, 2017

"Shazam"! On The Big Screen



The next big comic book movie to be greenlit at Warners, following the success of "Wonder Woman", will be "Shazam!", starring the character 'Billy Batson' (aka 'Captain Marvel'), now known as 'Shazam', to be directed by David Sandberg January 2018:


 "I’m taking it all in", said director Sandberg about the comic book history behind "Shazam!" 


"Some of those really old ones are quite fun. He's been around since the 40's for, like, as long as 'Superman'. So there’s a lot to read and that's also interesting because he sort of has a couple of different origin stories or a couple of different takes on it. 


"There’ve been variations of the script, like before I came along. But now, this is about Shazam..."


"Captain Marvel" made his debut in Fawcett Publications' "Whiz Comics" in 1940...


...created by writer Bill Parker and illustrator C.C. Beck, whose art team also included "Captain America" co-creator Jack "King" Kirby.


"Captain Marvel"-themed comic books eventually outsold the biggest comic book competitor of the day, Detective Comics'  (DC's) "Superman" by 14 million copies a month.


Thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign at the time, a huge variety of merchandise was licensed to manufacturers...


...including secret decoders, figurines, buttons, paper rockets, tin toys, puzzles, costumes...


...and a feature film 'serial' for Republic Pictures, (1941) noted as the very first big screen, 'superhero' movie.


Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Captain Marvel"...