At long last, Dwayne Johnson stopped flirting and teasing and revealed that, yes, he is going to be in the "Shazam" movie, and yes, he is going to play the villain, or at least anti-hero, Black Adam. And this seems to have opened the floodgates on the project. First it was revealed that the film has a writer, in the shape of "Jack The GIant Slayer"’s Darren Lemke, and now the head of the studio has talked more about it, and some of what he says is surprising.
New Line boss Toby Emmerich is the man in charge (making the project an outlier already, as the other DC Comics films are going through New Line’s parent company Warner Bros.), and tells Entertainment Weekly that ‘Shazam" will stand alone among the various other DC movies in development. "It feels to me like like ‘Shazam’ will have a tone unto itself," he said. "It’s a DC comic, but it’s not a Justice League character, and it’s not a Marvel comic. The tone and the feeling of the movie will be different from the other range of comic book movies."
These are familiar words for anyone making a comic book film, but also ones that are interesting here, with Emmerich going on to emphasize that the film "will have a sense of fun and a sense of humor," not long after we heard rumors that the other DC movies will be lacking entirely in jokes. Zack Snyder‘s "Man Of Steel" and "Batman V. Superman," the films at the center of the fledgling DC mega-franchise, appear to be grim and gritty tone, and the suggestion is that the other films, including team-up movie "Justice League," will follow along similar lines.
"Shazam" is clearly going in a different direction, but from Emmerich’s statement, it won’t tie into the Justice League at all, and presumably remain its own stand-alone thing (bar perhaps a cameo or two, though that may cause a clash of tones). We’re glad that all of these movies aren’t going to be doom and gloom, but it once again suggests that the left hand isn’t really talking to the right hand, and that Warner is swinging blindly in the dark. Still, the proof will be in the pudding: "Shazam" is expected in theaters in 2016 or 2017.