Black Adam Film Details
Black Adan’ is a 2021 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Produced by New Line Cinema, DC Films, Seven Bucks Productions, and FlynnPictureCo., it is a spin-off from Shazam! (2019) and the eleventh film in the DC Extended Universe. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani, the film stars Dwayne Johnson (who also served as a producer) as the titular character alongside Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui, and Pierce Brosnan.
Johnson was attached to Shazam! early in development and confirmed to portray the villain Black Adam in September 2014, but the producers later decided to give the character his own film. Sztykiel was hired in October 2017. Collet-Serra joined in June 2019 for a planned release date of December 2021, but this timeline was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional casting took place over the next year, including four members of the Justice Society of America (JSA), and the script was rewritten by Haines and Noshirvani. Filming took place from April to August 2021 at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, and also in Los Angeles.
Black Adam had its world premiere in Mexico City on October 3, 2022 and was theatrically released in the United States on October 21, 2022, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the cast performances, action sequences and technical aspects, but criticism of the plot and antagonist.
STORY
PRODUCTION
Development
New Line Cinema began the development of a Shazam! feature film in the early 2000s, based on the DC Comics character Captain Marvel. The title came from the wizard Shazam who gives the hero his powers, with DC unable to use the title Captain Marvel due to legal issues. Peter Segal signed on to direct the film in April 2006, and Dwayne Johnson was approached about portraying Captain Marvel later that year. By November 2007, Johnson was also interested in the film’s antagonist, Black Adam, and had received positive responses from fans about him possibly playing that character. Development on the film was placed on hold by January 2009, but had begun again by April 2014 when Warner Bros. (the parent company of New Line) and DC began planning a slate of superhero films for its shared universe, the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). That August, Johnson said he was still attached to the film but had not yet decided if he would play Captain Marvel or Black Adam. A month later, Johnson announced that he would portray Black Adam.
In January 2017, Johnson met with DC’s Geoff Johns to discuss the project after studio executives grew concerned that an actor of Johnson’s profile was being used as a villain and supporting character in the film instead of starring in it. Following that meeting, they decided to split the project into two films: Shazam! (2019), starring the hero Captain Marvel who DC had since rebranded as Shazam; and Black Adam, with Johnson starring as the title antihero. Johnson said the two characters would meet onscreen in the future. Johns confirmed in July that Johnson would not appear in Shazam!, though his likeness is used in that film for a magical hologram of Black Adam conjured by the wizard Shazam.
Adam Sztykiel was hired to write the screenplay for Black Adam in October 2017, with Johnson set to produce the film with Dany and Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions along with Beau Flynn of FlynnPictureCo. At that time, there were plans for Johnson to first appear as Black Adam in the sequel to Suicide Squad (2016), which had Gavin O’Connor attached as writer and possible director. The intention was for the members of the Suicide Squad to be tracking a weapon of mass destruction which would be revealed as Black Adam in a small role for Johnson, but these plans were abandoned when O’Connor left that film in 2018. Sztykiel completed a draft of the Black Adam script by April 2018, when Johnson said there was potential for filming to begin in 2019. At the end of August, Sztykiel handed in another draft and further revisions were underway. Hiram Garcia said then that giving Shazam and Black Adam their own films was allowing the best movie for each character to be developed, and he added that their depiction of Black Adam was not going to be “softened up for audiences”, explaining that he is “not the boy scout superhero, he’s the guy that’s like, okay, you cross him? Well, I rip your head off”. In December, Johnson said filming would not begin until the end of 2019 at the earliest due to his commitments to Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) and Red Notice (2021).
After the successful release of Shazam!, Black Adam became a priority for New Line. By June 2019, Jaume Collet-Serra was in talks to direct the film after impressing Johnson as the director of Jungle Cruise (2021). Collet-Serra described Black Adam as the Dirty Harry of superheroes, and said the film would show a darker version of Johnson compared to the adventure comedy Jungle Cruise. Johnson revealed in October that filming would begin in July 2020, and announced the following month that Black Adam was scheduled to be released on December 22, 2021. He also said Shazam would not appear in the film, but members of the Justice Society of America (JSA) would be introduced.
Pre-production
Johnson stated in mid-April 2020 that filming had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they were now planning to begin production in August or September of that year. By July, filming was expected to begin in early 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia, and Noah Centineo was cast as Atom Smasher. During the virtual DC FanDome event in August, Johnson revealed that the film’s version of the JSA would include Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and Cyclone, in addition to Atom Smasher. He explained that Hawkgirl was originally included in the team, but for a complicated reason she ultimately could not be used in the film and was replaced with Cyclone.
Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani had written a new draft of the script by September, when Aldis Hodge was cast as Hawkman. Collet-Serra discussed his comparisons of the character of Dirty Harry with Johnson, saying “The systems were corrupt, so you had criminals taking advantage. You needed a cop that would cut through the bullshit and basically do what needed to be done. That’s very much in line with Black Adam and his way of thinking. I think that’s appealing to pretty much everybody. Everybody knows how the world sometimes is not fair, and you need people that break the rules to even out the playing field.” Johnson remarked that “the Black in Black Adam refers to his soul”, and described his worldview as “myopic”, adding that for Adam, “There’s no room or space for him being wrong. There’s no room or space for anyone else’s opinion. There’s only room and space for him to justify anything that he does because of his pain. And he pushes and pushes and pushes and does not see any other way. It’s very black and white.”
The next month, Warner Bros. adjusted their upcoming release schedule due to the pandemic, leaving Black Adam without a release date. Later in October, Sarah Shahi joined the cast as Adrianna Tomaz. Quintessa Swindell was cast as Cyclone in December, with Marwan Kenzari joining the cast in February 2021. Filming was expected to begin that April, with construction of the sets beginning by mid-March. Pierce Brosnan was cast as Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate at the end of March, and the film was given a new release date of July 29, 2022. In April, James Cusati-Moyer, Bodhi Sabongui, Mo Amer, and Uli Latukefu joined the cast in undisclosed roles. Latukefu previously worked with Johnson on the series Young Rock, while Sabongui’s character was described as a key role from the Black Adam comics.
Filming
Principal photography began on April 10, 2021, at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, with Lawrence Sher serving as cinematographer. Filming was delayed from an initial July 2020 start due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson said on June 20, 2021, that there were three weeks left of filming, and on July 15 he announced that he had completed his scenes. Filming then continued without Johnson for several weeks, with the production moving to Los Angeles, and had wrapped by August 15.
Henry Cavill reprises his role as Superman from other DCEU films during the film’s post-credits scene; this marks his first time shooting material as the character since Justice League (2017). Johnson stated that Seven Bucks Productions, including himself, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia, played an integral role in the re-negotiations between Warner Bros. and Cavill. Johnson originally pitched the idea for Cavill to reprise his role to DC Films president Walter Hamada while working on reshoots for the film. Hamada rejected the idea due to his own plans for Superman projects, so Johnson instead approached Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairmen Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who approved the idea. The scene was shot in September 2022, a month before the film’s premiere, after a series of negotiations during Labor Day.
Post-production
Bill Westenhofer serves as the visual effects supervisor for the film, after doing so for the DCEU film Wonder Woman (2017), while John Lee and Michael L. Sale are the editors. Visual effects vendors included Weta FX, UPP, Scanline VFX, Digital Domain, DNEG, Rodeo VFX, Lola VFX, Cantina Creative, Tippett Studio, and EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani.
In March 2022, Warner Bros. adjusted its release schedule due to the impacts of COVID-19 on the workload of visual effects vendors. Black Adam was pushed back to October 21, 2022, with The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom moved from late 2022 into 2023 to allow time for their visual effects work to be completed. The delay for Black Adam was also reportedly due to reshoots that were scheduled for February 2022 having to be postponed because most of the studio space at Trilith was being taken up by production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Once shooting for that film ended, reshoots for Black Adam began in early May, and had concluded early the next month. Collet-Serra confirmed that work on the film had been completed with a picture lock being achieved by July 2022.
Final writing credits were given to Sztykiel, Haines, and Noshirvani, while an additional literary material credit was attributed to David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. In October 2022, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Holland were revealed to be reprising their respective DCEU roles as Shazam and Emilia Harcourt, the former from Shazam! (2019) and the latter from The Suicide Squad (2021) and Peacemaker (2022). The film initially received an R rating due to several gruesome death scenes and many cuts had to be made to the film to receive the lower PG-13 rating.
CASTING
- Dwayne Johnson as Teth-Adam / Black Adam:
A former slave from Kahndaq who, similar to the superhero Shazam, has had bestowed upon him the powers of various Egyptian gods from the ancient wizard of the same name. He possesses “the stamina of Shu, the speed of Horus, the strength of Amon, the wisdom of Zehuti, the power of Aten, and the courage of Mehen”. Benjamin Patterson serves as the body double for Teth-Adam in scenes where he is depicted in his human form, while Johnson’s face was superimposed onto the character for these sequences. The character previously appeared in Shazam! in a cameo, where Johnson’s likeness was used during a sequence where the wizard teaches Billy Batson. Johnson also voiced the character in a post-credits cameo, in addition to serving in other roles, in the unrelated animated film DC League of Super-Pets (2022). - Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall / Hawkman: The leader of the Justice Society of America (JSA), who wields technology and weapons made of Nth metal, a substance from another planet.
- Noah Centineo as Albert “Al” Rothstein / Atom Smasher: A young member of the JSA who can control his molecular structure and manipulate his size and strength.
- Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz: A university professor and resistance fighter in modern-day Kahndaq, who proves to be an ally for Adam and the JSA.
- Marwan Kenzari as Ishmael Gregor / Sabbac: The last descendant of King Ahk-Ton and the militant leader of the criminal organization Intergang, whom Adam must work with the JSA to bring down after he becomes Sabbac.
- Kenzari also portrays Ahk-Ton: the ancient tyrannical king of Kahndaq, who was slaughtered by Teth-Adam.
- Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkel / Cyclone: A member of the JSA who can control wind and generate sound. As the granddaughter of Abigail “Ma” Hunkel / Red Tornado, she seeks to live up to her familial superhero legacy. Swindell studied dancing techniques when designing their character’s movement.
- Bodhi Sabongui as Amon Tomaz: Adrianna’s teenage son, who befriends Adam.
- Pierce Brosnan as Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate:
An experienced and senior member of the JSA, who wields the Helmet of Fate and is capable of various sorcery abilities. Nelson is the son of an archeologist, with whom he discovered the tomb of Nabu the Wise. After attaining the mystic-sentient helmet from another dimension, which chooses who it will allow to wield it, he mastered his powers and used them as a superhero over many years. Brosnan wore a motion capture suit for the role.
RELEASE
Black Adam had its world premiere in Mexico City on October 3, 2022, and had screenings in New York City, Toronto, London, Atlanta, Miami, Madrid and Los Angeles between October 12 and October 20, 2022, before being released in the United States on October 21, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was originally set for release on December 22, 2021, but was moved from that date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then given a July 29, 2022, release date, but was moved to the October 2022 date when Warner Bros. adjusted its release schedule due to the impacts of COVID-19 on the workload of visual effects vendors.
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