Movie Stuff

Shazam! Movie Gets a Writer

John August, writer of Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Big Fish, has been hired to pen New Line's Shazam!, a take on the DC's Captain Marvel character.

The comic book series focuses on Billy Batson, a teenager who becomes the superhero known as Captain Marvel when he utters the magic word "Shazam!" The name is an acronym for six gods and heroes of the ancient world as well as their attributes: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Aries, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury.

I think they might be wasting their money writing an entirely new script for this tale of teenage transformation. They've already got Teen Wolf, so why not just change the wolf parts into Captain Marvel parts and call it a day? For instance, any instances of Teen Wolf howling are rewritten as "says Shazam!" Playing basketball as a wolf would be rewritten to say, "plays basketball as Captain Marvel." It seems pretty straightforward to me.

Michael Myers

Rob Zombie has released the first shot of Michael Myers from his upcoming take on Halloween. Judging by the hair, I'd say the classic William Shatner mask from the original has been replaced by a Da Vinci Code-era Tom Hanks mask, an undoubtedly scarier guise.

Skinwalkers Poster and Trailer

In Skinwalkers, two rival werewolf families war over a boy and his mother. If that isn't silly enough, the trailer wasn't able to convince me anyone actually turned into a wolf. The werewolf fights were composed of driving motorcycles and shooting at each other. In fact, it may have been an episode of the early-'90s action series Renegade with werewolf lines overdubbed.