Shazam Movie Cast News: Dwayne Johnson Reportedly to Star in Lead Role
Though there have been whispers about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in talks to get involved with the upcoming superhero comic book movie "Shazam," the star just confirmed online which role he will be playing. Recent news suggests the flick is edging even closer to getting the green-light.
Sources at Variety said that Darren Lemke was hired to write the script for New Line Cinema with Johnson in mind as a lead star. The role Johnson said he will be portraying is that of Black Adam, an anti-hero who serves as an unusual nemesis to Shazam.
Johnson and Hiram Garcia are also rumored to be producing the motion picture.
"We love Dwayne and have had nothing but success with him over the years," Toby Emmerich, president and COO of New Line, said. "When I look at Dwayne both off screen and on screen, he is such a larger than life character and it just made perfect sense to me that we put him in a DC comic movie. You look at these comic book characters and they have this certain swag and charisma that Dwayne carries with him where ever he is so that's why this always made sense."
The casting was confirmed Wednesday when Johnson tweeted about which character he would fill. He had been toying between the idea of playing Shazam or Black Adam online, but even throughout the promotion of his latest film Hercules, it was never revealed which role he would take.
From reactions on Twitter, fans of the comics seem to be pleased with the announcement of Johnson's casting.
The title role Shazam, and his alter ego Billy Batson, who by saying the word "Shazam" transforms to have the powers of six mythological gods. DC Comics has shown Shazam in Justice League and Batman comics in the last decade.
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