Exclusive : Shazam! screentests have kicked off!
Casting on Warners Shazam began last week, with a wide casting call alerting agents of young actors large and small (yep, seems Warner are taking a cue from the new Star Wars flicks here and are opening themselves up the possibility that their lead might be an unknown) that the Billy Batson role is a hole that needs to be clogged. The Henry Gayden script, which has a beautifully balanced tone of superhero adventure antics and welcome humor, much in the same way both Ant-Man and Spider-Man : Homecoming did, will be an amazing showcase for a tween thesp. The cheeky dialogue, the likeable nature and Batsons crucial emotional arc will likely make that chosen actors career. David F.Sanberg will likely be spoilt for choice here.
While Black Adam wont be appearing in the film (rumour is theyre having Dwayne Johnson debut the character in the next Man of Steel film), the Shazam family and more faves from the ink world will. In addition to Victor and Rosa, and staple buds Eugene, Freddy and Pedro, youll also see quite a bit of The Wizard.
** Slight spoiler here ** Billys mother features in an interesting sequence, reminiscent of some of the stuff in the last season of The Flash, thatll pull at the heartstrings.
Speaking of The Flash, it would seem the time-altering antics in his debut flick Flashpoint will have an effect on this one and other DC films but remains to be seen just how much. Fun idea to have the new crop of DC films find themselves slightly modified by the speedsters actions.
Anyway, long story short, screen testing for Batson has begun, as have the other roles, so we should hear some casting announcements by late September.
t: But seriously, if they start off with Halo: Reach and do it right, it can start off a very very successful Halo film franchise.
