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Editorials > SHAZAM Gets Title Change

The fellows over at IESB are reporting that they've recently talked to director Peter Segal about his upcoming Captain Marvel adaptation known as Shazam. Apparently, with the WGA strike over, they've learned that screenwriter John August is in the midst of some re-writes and the title itself may have been changed to Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam. Our friends over at Film School Rejects are speculating that this reflects a desire to distance the production from Kazaam, the well-known and much-derided Shaquille O'Neal genie comedy.

But if I may add to FSR's hypothesis, I believe that this title may also be an effort to cash in on the larger family fantasy dollar as opposed to the typical superhero action dollar. Think about some of the other long titles that sound similar:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

To be sure, no movie wants to be confused with Kazaam, but making the film subliminally sound more like a Harry Potter movie is even more of a step in the right direction (commercially speaking, anyway).

-David Morgan

Comments

DraytonSawyer on 02/26/2008 07:41am

I'd care but Captain Marvel sucks.

King Kracka on 02/26/2008 3:16pm

Wow, and that completely made your comment worth posting.

Besides, Captain Marvel is awesome.

DraytonSawyer on 02/26/2008 6:24pm

It really did. i get a kick out of pointing out shit I dislike. Whether people agree with it or not.

You think he's awesome and I respect that. I think years of horrid, unoriginal writing make for a tremendously bad character. Does he have a chance to be made into something decent. Sure, but that would involve a massive overhaul of the material. Thus, my opinion. Which is just that.

King Kracka on 02/27/2008 01:13am

Fair enough. Your belief that the he's a bad character is your opinion, and I can respect that. However, I think Captain Marvel is a great golden age superhero who had the potential to be as huge as superman. Hell, at one point Captain marvel comics outsold superman comics. Of course, then DC comics sued the publisher of the Captain marvel comics and it went downhill from there. That however, WAS years and years ago. I can understand the dislike of the bad writing that has done probably more damage than good to the character. There IS however plenty of good Captain Marvel material out there.

Anyway, as far as the movie goes, it will likely be another superman movie. The same story that's been told a million times, and then hollywood gets to flex its CGI muscle and have captain marvel lifting very large things. So yeah, I by no means have much belief that the movie will be anything more than a summer, popcorn, super hero, action flick.

DraytonSawyer on 02/27/2008 7:43pm

Yeah, that's a fair outlook. However, I must point out that "potential" to be as huge as Superman isn't exactly something to boast about. Superman, despite lasting popularity, was also horribly written throughout the majority of its history. To this very day the comics have a childish quality to them that is nearly unshakable. I do agree with what you have to say though. Marvel has potential, as does Superman, shown by the good story arcs but damn there is an abominously large pile of trite crap to wade through to get to the meat of it. Unfortunately, that's what people are most attached to and to dare shrug it off is close to sacrilege. So it's a catch-22 and we're all fucked. Potentially.

King Kracka on 02/28/2008 3:09pm

Yeah, I definitely can't argue with any of that.

It's amazing that if these characters were a little deeper, and a little more vulnerable(instead of being damn near invincible)they could be 20 times better.

But, they aren't. Never will be.

Fuck 'em. I'd rather watch Batman then either one of them anyway.

DraytonSawyer on 02/28/2008 8:35pm

I'll drink to that.

mistrrhappy on 02/29/2008 09:06am

mistrrhappy on 02/29/2008 09:12am

For those who don't know- IMHO, the best revisionist take on Captain Marvel is still the Alan Moore/ Neil Gaiman 80's British comic masterpiece Marvelman (published as Miracleman in the U.S.). It's just damn nifty. Check out the Wikipedia page dedicated to it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracleman

Cheers!

DraytonSawyer on 02/29/2008 4:30pm

Hard to go wrong with Moore or Gaiman. I agree, it was a great piece.

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