Yep, the World’s Mightiest Mortal is heading for the silver screen:
Warner Bros. has staked “Get Smart” director Peter Segal and his Callahan Filmworks partner Michael Ewing to a three-year first-look deal.
Segal and Ewing kick off the pact with “Liam McBain: International Tennis Star and Proper English Geezer,” a Chip Hall-scripted spec. Segal will develop to direct a film that follows the rise, fall and ultimate redemption of a fictional British tennis star of the ’80s.
As part of the deal, WB has also acquired the John August-scripted “Captain Marvel”; Segal will direct the DC Comics adaptation. He and Ewing began working on the film two years ago at New Line, but the property has moved over to WB. Pic tells the story of teenaged Billy Batson, who transforms into the superhero when he says the word “Shazam!”
I’ve always thought that Captain Marvel and Billy Batson would make for a better movie (or a better television show) than Superman. Superman is just a known commodity. He’s been in print non-stop for almost 70 years. Captain Marvel is a beloved old character, but still one that is trapped in time. Sure, D.C. is doing it’s best to rape the characters to death, but I doubt many people are paying much attention.
There aren’t going to be any screaming fanboys complaining if Mary Marvel isn’t portrayed as a psychotic decked out of fetish leather drag.
Just as long as they don’t have him traveling the highways and byways in a Winnebago with some old fart named Mentor.
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