“Shazam” director David F. Sandberg, who is currently promoting his film adaptation of the popular video game “Until Dawn,” almost quit making “IP-based movies” because of backlash from angry fans.
His previous movie, DC Comics’ “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” received underwhelming reviews after the original 2019 superhero movie was a box office success. In an interview with Gamesradar, Sandberg opened up on the toll the negative fan reaction had on him.
“I mean, to be honest, fans can get very, very crazy and very angry with you,” he said. “You can get, like, death threats and everything so after ‘Shazam 2,’ I was like, ‘I never wanna do another IP-based movie because it’s just not worth it.’”
In a since-deleted tweet after the release of “Shazam 2” in 2023, Sandberg had said he was “done with superheroes for now.”
“On Rotten Tomatoes I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film. I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well. As I’ve been saying for a while now I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things). After six years of ‘Shazam’ I’m definitely done with superheroes for now,” he wrote at the time. “Just to be clear, I don’t regret even for a second making the ‘Shazam’ movies. I’ve learned so much and gotten to work with some truly amazing people. Will forever be grateful that I got to direct two of these! They’ve been very challenging but valuable experiences. One thing I’ve really been looking forward to is disconnecting from the superhero discourse online. A lot of that stresses me out so much and it will be nice not having to think about that anymore.”
His return to horror came with this week’s new movie “Until Dawn,” a time-loop horror movie that forces a cabin full of young adults to survive hordes of terrifying monsters over and over again.
“But then I was sent this script, and I was like, ‘Ah, this would be so much fun to do, to do all these kinds of horrors? I kind of have to do it, and hope that the people see what we’re trying to do and like it,’” he told Gamesradar. “I really thought it was brilliant of the writers to come up with this time loop idea where the night starts over because then you do kind of get that feel of the game, when you’re replaying it and making different choices. I think it’s very much in the spirit of the game.”
From Variety US