David Sandberg On Moving Right Into ‘Shazam’ From ‘Annabelle: Creation’

Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg’s next project will be a feature film adaptation of DC Comics’ Shazam. Though Sandberg may be best known for his work on horror films including Lights Out, the filmmaker recently discussed when production on Shazam might begin and explained why his experience makes him the right choice to direct the film during an interview with Collider.

Sandberg discussed how his previous work gave him the proper experience to helm Shazam:

“Well I mean overall, I’ve been working with kids in both my movies to my success and there will be kids in Shazam and the main character is this kid who becomes an adult. But otherwise I think, I mean my first movie was just a huge learning experience in that, I’d only made no-to-low-budget shorts before back home in Sweden and all of a sudden, I got to go to film fests in America and I got to be the director. There was a lot to learn on that movie. Just how movies are made here. How things work. And then on Annabelle, there was a lot more sort of… I was lot more relaxed and could have a little bit more fun and just try out some different things, like a little bit of a different shooting style and stuff like that that I really enjoyed and I want to try to keep.”

Sandberg also revealed that does not want to de-age an actor using CGI for the transition from young Billy Batson to the adult hero Shazam:

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to do that. That seems like way too much of a hassle. So I think it’s just kind of best to have a kid and an adult.”

Sandberg explained that he will begin work on Shazam almost immediately after Annabelle: Creation’s release, though he was uncertain of when the film will officially begin production.

“Pretty much going into Shazam right away. I mean my life’s just become so weird because I got to do Lights Out and immediately afterward I got to do Annabelle and now I’m going straight into Shazam, so it’s like I’m on a roll so let’s just keep going until they kick me out of Hollywood.”

Having worked with different cinematographers on his previous projects, Sandberg expressed his desire to work with Annabelle: Creation DP Maxime Alexandre again:

“I really enjoyed working with Maxime Alexandre on Annabelle: Creation so yeah, I want to work together with him as much as I can, because we got along great and we share similar sensibilities when it comes to cinematography.”

When asked to clarify if Alexandre was on board Shazam, Sandberg replied:

“I want to try and work with him on everything that ever comes.”

Details on the film’s plot are currently unknown, though most tellings of the comic book story depict Billy Batson as an orphan child who is granted the ability to become an adult hero with godlike powers by an ancient Wizard.

Shazam! does not have a release date, but the film is scheduled to begin production in February 2018.

Source: Collider