Ragesh Dipu
Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming comic-book adaptation ‘Black Adam’ has found its director. ‘The Shallows‘ helmer Jaume Collet-Serra will direct the movie which marks Johnson’s first foray into the comic-book universe, reports Variety. Produced by New Line, ‘Black Adam’ is touted as a spinoff and follow-up to the hit superhero flick ‘Shazam!‘ Jaume Collet-Serra has just wrapped up another Dwayne Johnson project ‘Jungle Cruise’ from Disney. ‘Black Adam’ reunites Johnson with one of his most trusted filmmakers.
Beau Flynn of FlynnPictureCo produces the movie along with Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions. Scott Sheldon will oversee the production on behalf of FlynnPictuereCo. Adam Sztykiel, who worked in the Johnson and FlynnPictuereCo movie ‘Rampage,’ is attached to the project as screenwriter.
Black Adam, who is known as Shazam’s arch-rival, is a supervillain of the comic-book realm. Shazam a.k.a. Captain Marvel is the alter ego of the boy Billy Batson. On the other hand, Black Adam is Shazam’s predecessor and an ancient Egyptian prince who became corrupted by the black magic of a wizard. DC Comics revived the character in the ’70s as a recurring anti-hero in Captain Marvel and Marvel Family comic book series under the tag ‘Shazam!’ Though New Line planned to debut ‘Black Adam’ in one of the ‘Shazam’ projects earlier, they removed the character to give him a standalone movie.
“For those who know the comic books and who know the mythology of Shazam, Shazam is connected to Black Adam,” Johnson shared his excitement about the project in a video posted on his official Instagram handle. “Black Adam is an antihero or villain, who I can not wait to play. I’ve been developing this, and it’s been with me in my DNA, for over ten years now. We should start shooting that in about a year. I’m very excited about that. I can’t wait to play Black Adam, because they’re all getting their asses kicked when I play Black Adam. That day of reckoning is coming for everyone,” he added.
According to Variety, Johnson was very impressed with Collet-Serra’s work behind the camera in ‘Jungle Cruise.’ The actor roped in the filmmaker for ‘Black Adam’ soon after they wrapped the shooting for the action thriller. Collet-Sera is best known for blockbusters like the Blake Lively starrer ‘The Shallows’ and the Liam Neeson flicks ‘Non-Stop’ and ‘Unknown.’ ‘Jungle Cruise’ features Emily Blunt along with Johnson in the lead role. The movie, which is lined up for a July 24, 2020 release, is a joint production venture of FlynnPicutreCo and Seven Bucks Productions.
Meanwhile, ‘Shazam!’ which bowed in April with Zachary Levi playing the adult-superhero version of the titular character, went on to become a blockbuster. The movie grossed nearly $367M globally so far.
Cover Image Courtesy: Sony Pictures (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle)
