I have to say, I wasn't really all that interested in the proposed film version of Shazam. I don't think I actually  saw the cartoon or ever read the comic. That being said, John August's account of what happened with the film and how it went from a comedic movie starring a kid to (proposed) edgier, older fare and then fell from greenlight heaven to development hell is interesting. The key components, it seems, had nothing to do with the script itself but rather centered around the box office.

In retrospect, I can point to two summer Warner Bros. movies that I believe defined the real issue at hand: Speed Racer and The Dark Knight. The first flopped; the second triumphed. Given only those two examples, one can understand why a studio might wish for their movies to be more like the latter. But to do so ignores the success of Iron Man, which spent most of its running time as a comedic origin story, and the even more pertinent example of WB’s own Harry Potter series. I tried to make this case, to no avail.

You can find the full story at John August's blog but it's very interesting to see how a veteran screenwriter like August (who penned Go! and Big Fish, among others) can be felled by the foibles of the front office. It shows how people can be confident in an idea until an even barely comparable film struggles. This is the industry I'm trying to work in.