New Line Cinema announced production has officially gotten underway on Shazam! starring Zachary Levi (Chuck). The action film’s based on the popular DC comic book character and is directed by David F. Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation, Lights Out). Per New Line, Shazam! will be set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but is being shot in Toronto.
The cast also includes Asher Angel (Andi Mack) as Billy Batson; Mark Strong (the Kingsman movies) as supervillain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana; Jack Dylan Grazer (It) as Billy’s best friend and ultimate superhero enthusiast, Freddy, part of the foster family that includes Mary, played by Grace Fulton (Annabelle: Creation); Darla, played by Faithe Herman (This is Us); Eugene, played by Ian Chen (Fresh Off the Boat); and Pedro, played by Jovan Armand (Hawaii Five-O). Cooper Andrews (The Walking Dead) and Marta Milans (Killer Women) play foster parents Victor and Rosa Vasquez, and Ron Cephas Jones (This is Us) is the Wizard.
Peter Safran (Aquaman, The Conjuring) is on board as producer, and Christopher Godsick, Jeffrey Chernov, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia are executive producing. Maxime Alexandre is the director of photography, Jennifer Spence is the production designer, Michel Aller is the editor, and Leah Butler is the costume designer.
Shazam! will open in theaters on April 5, 2019.
The Plot: We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).
