Shazam is "very different" from all "the other flying people in tights movies," declared screenwriter
John August as he prepared to submit his completed draft. "If Captain Marvel didn’t pre-exist and there was just an idea of a 13-year-old boy who can speak a magic word and turn into a superhero — that would sell cause it’s a really good idea."
And it's an idea with "really good comic potential," he asserted, stating that his origin-story script owes as much to
Big as to
Superman. Then he laughed. "Yeah, I avoid saying that because that incenses certain people."
But the writer of Tim Burton's
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is circumspect about his responsibilities to fandom. "I knew what I was getting into. In a sense, even with a character that doesn’t have the giant spotlight on him like Superman or Batman, there’s a tremendously loyal fanbase who have very clear expectations about what they think a Captain Marvel movie should be. What people tend to really forget is that I’m just pushing words around on paper and doing the best job I can."
(MTV post by Shawn Adler.)