'Shazam!' Footage Shown At CinemaCon

During their presentation at CinemaCon, Warner Bros. screened some behind-the-scenes footage from their upcoming New Line production Shazam!.

The film, which stars Zachary Levi in the title role and Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, is in production in Toronto now, with a number of journalists (incuding ComicBook.com) having been on-set last week.

During the Warner Bros. presentation, ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis reported fairly little film footage, with brief shots of Billy Batson (Asher Angel) shouting "Shazam!," some punches thrown, and a truck falling from the sky.

"The character of Shazam has a very rich history," Sandberg told the CinemaCon audience.

"It is basically the movie Big with super powers," Levi added.

JoBlo tweeted that the footage was similar to that shown reporters on set.

"Levi looks great in costume and it's referred to Big with superpowers. Also got a peek at Mark Strong's Dr. Sivana using his powers to 'force push' people."

The Big comparison is one that you don't have to look too hard to find again; in the film, a young boy makes a wish that he could be big, and it's granted -- with a twist: he wakes up the next day with his regular mind in an adult body.

There are different takes on Shazam!, with some writers treating the superhero (sometimes known as Captain Marvel -- long story there) as a separate entity from Billy Batson while other writers imagine him as Billy's mind in the superhero's body. A happy medium some fans choose to interpret is that Shazam is Billy's mind, but given the wisdom of Solomon (one of the hero's powers), it changes his perspective somewhat and can sometimes make him seem to be a different person from his younger self.

The second of those three takes seems the most likely for a movie that closely identifies with Big, but fans will have almost a year to see what shape it will take.

Shazam! stars Levi, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Ron Cephas Jones, Grace Fulton, Asher Angel, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Caroline Palmer, and Andi Osho.

Justice League is now on home video. The DCEU continues with Aquaman on December 21, Shazam! on April 5, 2019, Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019, Cyborg in 2020, and Green Lantern Corps in 2020.