Shazam! Star Zachary Levi Cast as Kurt Warner

Shazam! star Zachary Levi will play NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner in the upcoming film American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story. The film comes from Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company. The film is said to chronicle Warner’s rise from supermarket shelf stocker in Iowa to two-time NFL MVP. Jon Erwin and Andrew Erwin are directing the film from a script by David Aaron Cohen, Jon Gunn, and Jon Erwin, based on Warner’s memoirs, All Things Possible: My Story of Faith, Football and the First Miracle Season, and interviews. Kingdom Story Company then acquired the script. Jim Miller and Chelsea Kujawa will oversee the film for Lionsgate.

“When I read Kurt’s story, I identified with the quiet strength he found to persevere — that’s something I think anybody can recognize in their own lives. This is the kind of underdog story that sports movies are all about, and the fact that it’s true makes it even more special. I’m thrilled to be part of bringing his story to audiences,” Levi said in a statement.

Levi’s past credits include Thor: The Dark World, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Chuck. Levi brought the magic superhero Shazam to life for Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line and will reprise his role in the sequel.

“The truth is, I don’t know much because they’re still working on the script,” Levi said when asked about Shazam! 2 during a virtual appearance at Awesome-Con Online 2020. “I know some general stuff, and I’m super stoked about all of the general stuff that I’ve heard. But ultimately what I want, I want the movie to be better than what we gave people the first time, which I think was a really good movie. Are there flaws in it? Are there other ways it could have been better polished or whatever? Sure. Most movies have bits and pieces about them that don’t, unfortunately, get fully cooked or fully polished based on the pipeline of making movies and all that. But all in all, we made a really good movie, a solid movie that still remained in the 90 percentile on Rotten Tomatoes and still made so many people really happy and brought people a lot of joy, and that was awesome. So if we can just do at least that, I’m gonna be stoked. And if we can do more than that, that’s what I’m hoping. I want to bring all that same joy and polish and fix and do whatever we can to the other structures of things that can make that tighter.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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