There’s been another “Swamp Thing” sighting, and it’s even scarier one than the last.
DC released the latest teaser for its upcoming horror series on Monday, and it shows all kinds of nightmarish footage — punctuated with screams, of course. While the previous teaser trailer focused on the titular monster (Derek Mears), we get to see more of the show’s stars this time. The series’ cast includes Crystal Reed, Henderson Wade, Jennifer Beals, and Andy Bean.
“Swamp Thing” is based on the DC comic books of the same name, which are created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. The upcoming series centers on scientist Abby Arcane (Reed) as she investigates a deadly virus and instead discovers the horrors within a Louisiana swamp. See some of what’s in store for her below, and be prepared to be creeped out.
“Swamp Thing” is set for 10 episodes and will premiere May 31 on the DC Universe subscription streaming service.
David F. Sandberg has been rising in the ranks over the past few years, starting out with short films and eventually moving onto features like “Lights Out” (based on one of his shorts) and “Annabelle: Creation.” With this week’s “Shazam!,” though, Sandberg enters the big leagues, with a superhero origin story as charming as it is thrilling, feeling both a part of the established DC Universe and also wholly separate from it, with a goofy hero (embodied by Zachary Levi) that you just can’t help but love.
We recently got to speak with Sandberg, who detailed just what went into designing and building that iconic suit (including one very interesting source of inspiration), what hidden references are tucked within the film, and whether or not he looked at the earlier scripts from the movie’s very long development process. Shazam!
Moviefone: This movie has been under development now for many years. was wondering if you looked at any those early scripts that they had worked on. Did you take a peek at the William Goldman or John August scripts or anything?
David F. Sandberg: I didn’t. Because I saw all those names like William Goldman and John August and a whole bunch of names. But no I didn’t see it all to be influenced by something we weren’t doing necessarily. It was more interesting to just see those names that I recognized. I heard they were completely different.
So what was your relationship with the character and the property before signing on?
I didn’t know much about him. I had heard the name and seen the character but didn’t know much about him. It was the studio came to me and were like, “Would you be interested in directing this?” They pitched it to me as “Big” but with superpowers. And that sounded awesome. So I said, “Yes, I want to do that.”
After you got the job did you get, did you do a deep dive?
Yes. I first read the Geoff Johns/New 52 since that’s where we take a lot of inspiration from. But then I went back as and read the first ones from the forties and then the Jerry Ordway stuff. There’s been a lot of different takes on Shazam, which is cool because it also meant that when it came to like designing the suits or designing the sins, there been different interpretations of it, which meant that we can do our own interpretation. We don’t necessarily have to stick to one thing.
WB
And did you, did you draw inspiration from those multiple sources when you were designing the character?
Yeah absolutely. I think that’s why I wanted him to have the shorter cape of that he had when he first came out and sort of mix it with the hood that he has in the New 52. And for the bolt, I was inspired by the animated film “Justice League War.” Because we quickly discovered that if you have too big of a bolt, he can’t bend his body. He needs to be able to move around in it. So we had to go with a bit of a smaller bolt. In “Justice League War,” it has more of a triangular bolt, which I thought looked cool.
What was that bolt actually lit from within the suit?
It was and it created a lot of problems. First of all, in designing it, we went through a lot of different iterations, with different materials and different lights inside to get a good color. Then when we were shooting, it was very unreliable. Either it just shut off or sometimes it would go to like 100% brightness all of a sudden. Or you’re in the middle of the take and suddenly the bolts starts blinking and you have to cut. It was very annoying. During shooting it was like, Why did we even do this? But then you’d get those moments when it just looks really cool. Like when he’s coming through smoke for example, and you have that interaction between the light and the smoke. There’s thing in the end as well that made it all worth it.
How difficult was it to cast this movie?
Casting is super important to me cause I’m a lazy director. I just want to cast the right people and then they are the characters. When it came to the Shazam it was very important to us that whoever wanted the part had to come in and read. BecauseI’m seeing actors in all of these movies, but they never play kids. We want to make sure that they could do that. And we all auditioned and looked at self-tapes from over a hundred people before finding Zach. So it was actually a bit of, Are we going to find the right guy? But then I saw his self-tape and I was just said, “He’s the guy.” Because he had that enthusiasm of a child. He feels like a big kid. So that was a big relief.
When it came to the kids, the first one cast in the movie was Jack Dylan Grazer. New Line when we were prepping this movie, they said, “We just shot this movie ‘It.’ It had a lot of talented kids and you should have a look at that movie and see if there’s anyone that could work for either Billy or Freddy.” And Jack was just the perfect Freddy. So we didn’t really have auditions for that role.
This movie does feel very different than most superhero movies. Was there anything that you were consciously trying to add to the mythology?
A sense of fun and adventure was the main thing. It’s just such a fun character and it’s such a great concept. And I wanted to really explore that fact that it’s a kid who gets these superpowers and just imagine all the things he would try out. Most superheroes get their power when they’re adults and they have to deal with, Okay, I have this power now and this responsibility. We could go the other direction. It was like, Holy shit, I have these powers, I can do everything!
Still, this is a movie that’s very much in the DC Universe. Did feel beholden to that in a weird way?
No, it was very open to just make the best “Shazam!” movie and to do whatever was appropriate for that. I really liked that we didn’t have that edict of, Okay, you have to set up these things for future movies. We came into it as a standalone story.
WB
That being said, would you like Shazam to join the Justice League?
I think that would lead to a lot of great moments. It’s such a different character. But that was also thing when we were designing his suit. I wanted it to feel old school. Like he was it more of a Golden Age superhero but at the same time if you were to put him next to anyone else in the Justice League, he should fit in there as well. So you’ve got to have that sort of texture in the suit that we’ve seen in later movies like “Man of Steel,” where it feels more modern. It had to be a blend of the two.
I noticed Annabelle in the pawn shop. Are there any other Easter eggs that you want people to keep an eye out for?
There are a lot of DC references. We have some references to really old Shazam comics. When they get to the Rock of Eternity there are these artifacts on display like a burning violin and a spiked helmet and things like that. Those were actually references that Geoff Johns dug up from 1941 that only the most hardcore Captain Marvel fans will even pick up.
And you’re out at the same time as the other “Captain Marvel.”
That was just funny. There’s been this whole discussion about the name because he was originally Captain Marvel and he was until quite recently actually. And I think if we didn’t know that “Captain Marvel” was coming out, we might have had a little bit more fun with that name or maybe do a little something with that. But now it just felt like since they were both out at the same time, we’ll just have to go down the path of Shazam.
Zachary Levi, who stars as the titular magical superhero “Shazam!,” is very familiar to the geek-y ecosystem, having starred for many years on the celebratory “Chuck” (in which an everyday nerd becomes a secret agent) and, as a secondary cast member of the latter two “Thor” films. Talking to him, you get the sense that he knows that world really well, which is good because after “Shazam!” opens, he’s going to be a household name (not just a Hall H superstar).
His performance in “Shazam!” is so wonderful, so warm and human, that it stands out against most of his super-heroic ilk (even more impressive is the fact that he’s playing a teenage boy who transforms into Shazam); with characters like Tony Stark you wonder if he even has a heart underneath all that armor. And you feel that compassion while talking to Levi, who has been really good about cooling the temperature of the internet, especially when it comes to the very dumb rivalry between “Shazam!” (whose main character was originally named Captain Marvel) and Marvel’s “Captain Marvel.”
We also talked about his love of comic books, crossing the aisle from Marvel to DC, and where he’d like to see the character go next. It’s an unusually thoughtful and heartfelt conversation and, just like the movie, a total surprise.
Moviefone: What was your relationship to this property and this character before you signed on to do the movie?
Levi: Well, I hadn’t known … I mean I wasn’t, I grew up reading a lot of comics but I was more of a, like an X-Men fan. I was super deep into X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, all that kind of stuff. And I knew of the character of Captain Marvel/Shazam back then. But the only thing I really knew about it was the iconic [concept], it’s a young boy who can say a magic word and become a superhero. Of course when I started auditioning for the role, I dug far deeper into it and started falling more in love with the concept and the character and everything. “Big” is one of my favorite movies I’ve ever seen in my life. And this gave me the opportunity to basically do “Big” with superpowers. And that is just so groovy.
You were also a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Was there any trepidation about crossing the aisle?
Not particularly, no. Certainly there are fans that are bigger DC fans and fans that are bigger Marvel fans. But I think a lot of fans are just fans of quality content. I was super stoked that Marvel saw fit to trust me to bring Fandral or life, but I didn’t really have all that much to do in those movies. The Warriors Three weren’t really utilized that much. And then ultimately, you know, we all live very quickly in “Thor Ragnarok.” So no, I wasn’t like, Oh no, I hope the DC fans araren’t angry with me that I was with Marvel. I’ve never once felt any of that. In fact, if anything, I like it was a nod that there that we’re all good because, you know, it’s not like DC looked at me and said, “Oh, he’s already been used by Marvel. No, we’re not going to use him.” They said, “No, he’s the right guy for the job and that’s what we want.” So, uh, you know, it was all peachy.
You’ve also been very good about sort of squashing beef online, with the Captain Marvel versus Captain Marvel debate. How important is it to you to keep that discourse civil and how much responsibility do you think you have in terms of having to jump in and tell these people to knock it off?
To be perfectly honest, it’s all of our responsibility. I don’t see it so much as me, but needing to squash some rivalry. What I saw was lies. What I saw were defamatory, fabricated messages. I was aware of them because they were, they were tagging me as if they were like doing me and the movie a favor. Like, “We’re not going to go see that ‘Captain Marvel’ movie, we’re going to go see ‘Shazam.’” It was like, Whoa, Whoa, whoa. Don’t loop us into whatever toxicity you’re doing. First of all, that’s not okay. We’re not asking for that. You’re not helping us or anyone for that matter. This is all destructive.
But I think all of us have the responsibility to speak what is true. And then beyond that, we have a responsibility to point out when we think something is untrue and not vilify. I have no intention of ever vilifying or dehumanizing even the trolliest of trolls or people who are doing bad in the world. I see all of us as in some form of either enlightened or not. A lot of people are just lost. A lot of people are hurting. A lot of people are afraid. A lot of people are misinformed. A lot of people are ignorant. And fear comes from ignorance. And then anger comes from that fear. And then hate comes from that anger. And I think we need to stop. We need to stop that that process. We need to keep people from going all the way down that line and in order to do that it’s not going to be pointing fingers at them and saying that they’re trolls, it’s a matter of opening your arms to them and giving them a big old bear hug and saying, “Hey, and what you’re doing right now isn’t helping anybody and it’s not good. But I want you to know that I see you and I appreciate you and I recognize that you are alive and you are worthy of the life that you’re living.” And speak truth to all of that. And if we can do that then I think we’re all going to have a really good chance that at having a real dope future that’s Star and Trek-y we’ll go to other planets get to do all the cool shit. If we don’t get along then when they’re going to go to another plant and that’s really gonna suck.
Can you talk about your relationship with Jack Dylan Grazer because your chemistry is one of the joys of this movie. What was your relationship with him on set? I mean, was there anything that you guys did to kind of build up this rapport?
Fortunately for me, he’s just an insanely talented young man whose innate personality is so much of what his talent is. When you see him in interviews, you realize that Jack isn’t acting that much, he’s going to be himself. And a lot of that is because I think he’s been protected and encouraged by his mom to be unique and be himself and allows himself to be vulnerable. And he is funny and whip smart. We got to riff a lot. David, our director, give us some long leash, often and we got to play and inhabit these characters and bring them to life what was given to us on the page by our awesome writer Henry Gayden but also what was not on the page and what we just got to bring in that David ended up using in the film.
Jack and I would definitely be cracking each other up here and there. It was all really dependent on the situation. I mean it was really cold when we were making this movie. We were in Toronto in the middle of winter and we were shooting outside at night, all the time. So it’s difficult to be cracking jokes when you’re shivering and can barely say your dialogue because your tongue is numb. But we had a lovely time and continue to. Him and Asher, who is also so stupid talented. I think part of it is I’m kind of a big kid anyway. So we would talk about video games and sports and all kinds of stuff. But I was also seeing myself in these boys. I was some version of them for sure when I was their age. And I became very protective of that. I want them be protected in ways that I feel like maybe I wasn’t even. Getting in this business can really chew you up if you don’t have people around you to remind you of what is real and what is not.
WB/New Line
We’ve heard that your suit was somewhat problematic. What was your favorite story about the costume?
What David and our DP Maxime concocted and came up with, I think it was novel and awesome in a lot of ways — having a practical light-up chest and light-up gauntlets. But as you can imagine, between the wiring, the connectors, the receivers, the wireless receivers and the batteries and we were shooting in really, really cold weather so the batteries wouldn’t work as well. The trial and error of the electronics in the suit was an epic in and of itself — really, really interesting and frustrating. Because we might not be able to use a take because all of a sudden, the chest started flickering because there was a problem with a connector. So we lose that. We lose that time entirely. But the costume department was incredible and they put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into refining all of that stuff along the way. So eventually we got it down pretty pat; it was pretty bulletproof by the end.
What would you like to see next for Shazam?
Oh man. I don’t know. I just want to keep making it. I mean I think this movie that we made is so full of joy and fun and heart and wish-fulfillment and just straight-up entertaining. You know, that’s the kind of movie that feels like a real movie. Like the kinds of things I watched when I was a kid in the movie theater and all the smells of the popcorn and the, and the shuffling of feet and the theater getting dark — it feels that kind of experience. I just want to keep making movies like that. I love that we have an incredibly different cast when it comes to racial diversity, as well as a handicapped kid and they’re all foster kids. We get to represent them on screen in ways that they have never been represented. I just want to keep making movies that give people about really cool respite, that hour-and-a-half to two-hour escapism from the world we live in right now. Because it’s pretty gnarly. There’s a lot of gnarly stuff. And I think movies like this can hopefull, empower people in positive ways and give them hope. And hopefully that will bleed into all of us loving each other a little bit more.
The project is officially in the works now, with Warner Bros. hiring David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who co-wrote the first movie with Will Beall, to pen the script for the follow-up.
The studio is in talks with director James Wan to produce the sequel. He will decide if he’s returning to direct after seeing the finished script. Johnson-McGoldrick and Wan have previously collaborated on “The Conjuring 2.”
“Aquaman” has earned $1.12 billion globally since opening in December and is the first DC movie to pass the $1 billion mark since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Making a sequel was a no-brainer, though it’s surprising how long it’s taken for Warner Bros. to move forward on one. With major franchises like this, studios often begin developing sequels as soon as the Monday after a successful opening weekend.
But Warner Bros. reportedly did not want to pressure Wan or his collaborators to make any decisions yet. Instead, they greenlit an “Aquaman” spinoff, “The Trench,” which will be a horror-type flick featuring the lost, amphibious tribe of mutants that was introduced in the flagship.
DC’s upcoming “Stargirl” series is getting a major dose of star power: Luke Wilson has joined the ensemble.
Deadline reports that Wilson has been tapped to play Pat Dugan, a mechanic-turned-superhero who pilots Stripe, a 15-foot robot he built himself. And according to showrunner Geoff Johns — who just happens to be the person who created the character of Stargirl while writing for DC Comics back in the 1990s — Wilson’s casting was meant to be.
Johns said in a statement:
“When I first moved to Los Angeles in 1996 and saw ‘Bottle Rocket,’ I became a huge fan and admirer of Luke’s. And I literally wrote this part for Luke, hoping that someday and somehow he’d play Pat Dugan. I only envisioned him. And now I feel like I won the lottery! Luke’s talent, humor, compassion — his presence and professionalism — and his creative collaboration, his ideas — we’re so lucky to have him alongside Brec in ‘Stargirl.’”
Wilson’s role is crucial to the plot of “Stargirl,” essentially setting in motion the titular heroine’s origin story. Here’s his official character description from the series:
“Pat Dugan once went by the less-than-inspired superhero name of Stripesy, sidekick to a young hero known as the Star-Spangled-Kid and later Starman of the legendary Justice Society of America. Today, Pat has left his sidekick life behind him. But when his new step-daughter, Courtney Whitmore, discovers Pat’s secret past and takes on Starman’s legacy to become Stargirl, Pat is forced to come out of retirement and once again become a sidekick — to his step-daughter — this time piloting a 15-foot robot called Stripe.”
Brec Bassinger is playing Courtney/Stargirl, and Joel McHale will recur as Starman. The rest of the cast includes Lou Ferrigno Jr. as Rex Tyler/Hourman, Brian Stapf as Ted Grant/Wildcat, Henry Thomas as Charles McNider/Dr Mid-Nite, and Anjelika Washington (playing an undisclosed role).
“Stargirl” is set to debut on DC’s streaming service sometime in 2019.
“Sharknado” star Ian Ziering has joined the cast, Deadline reports. He’ll play Daniel Cassidy, a former stuntman and actor whose career has died down after playing the demonic Blue Devil. It’s a recurring role in the DC Universe series.
“Swamp Thing” is based on the comics series created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightston. The cast already includes Crystal Reed as Abby Arcane, a woman investigating a Louisiana swamp; Andy Bean as biologist Alec Holland; and Derek Mears, who plays Holland after he transforms into the Swamp Monster. Other actors involved include Maria Sten, Jennifer Beals, Jeryl Prescott, Virginia Madsen, and Will Patton.
The series is written by Mark Verheiden and Gary Dauberman, both of whom are executive producing alongside director Len Wiseman, James Wan, and Michael Clear. It comes from Atomic Monster and Warner Bros. Television, and it is set to stream on the DC Universe digital subscription service in 2019.
Ziering comes to the project having most recently starred in Syfy’s Sharknado movie series. He is also well-known for his role on the hit ’90s drama “Beverly Hills 90210.”
The upcoming DC spinoff “Birds of Prey” just got an official, full title — and it’s both fantastic and fabulous.
Star Margot Robbie took to Instagram to reveal the moniker, sharing a picture of the film’s script with a scribbled subtitle. It reads in full: “Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).”
Warner Bros. also shared the image on Twitter, though some fans remained skeptical that this was indeed an official subtitle. But The Hollywood Reporter did some digging and confirmed that this is indeed the actual name of the movie, “and not just the star having some fun” doodling on her script.
It’s clear, though, that Robbie and co. are indeed having fun with this production, which is being billed as an R-rated girl gang romp. As THR reports, the title suggests that the flick will center at least in part around Harley’s (Robbie) breakup with the Joker (played by Jared Leto in “Suicide Squad,” from which “Birds of Prey” is spun off), as portrayed in a recent comics storyline.
In addition to Robbie, the titular heroines and villainesses include Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as as Black Canary, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, and newcomer Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain. Ewan McGregor plays the villain, Black Mask.
“Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn” is due in theaters on February 7, 2020.
