I am – Hercules!!


Warner Bros. believes veteran TV actor Bill Birch (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Unit”) can do what veteran movie writer William Goldman (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Princess Bride”) could not: write a screenplay that will finally put “Shazam!” in production. Birch will be co-writing with funnybook veteran Geoff Johns (“Blade: The Series,” “Robot Chicken”), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Birch is at least the sixth writer assigned to put the classic Fawcett Comics superhero Captain Marvel on the big screen, following Goldman, Bryan Goluboff (“The Basketball Diaries”), Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow (“Evan Almighty”) and John August (“Go,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Corpse Bride”).

Peter Segal ("Nutty Professor II," "Anger Management," "50 First Dates," "The Longest Yard," "Get Smart"), who has been working with Birch on the period action comedy "One Finger Salute" (a.k.a. "Pre-Astronauts"), is still attached to direct.

“Shazam” is the magic word that transforms preteen Billy Batson into Captain Marvel, the world’s mightiest mortal.

Warner Bros. can’t call the movie “Captain Marvel” because Marvel Comics cleverly trademarked its own (far less famous) Captain Marvel character (a filthy extraterrestrial!), even though Fawcett’s Captain Marvel first appeared in 1939 and Marvel’s Captain Marvel didn’t saunter along until 1967.

Find all of The Hollywood Reporter’s story on the matter here.

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