“Power born from rage” may be the tagline selling Black Adam, but the film’s vision was born from the creative and collaborative minds of producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia.
Long-time partners with Black Adam himself, Dwayne Johnson, Flynn and Garcia spoke at the global press conference for the anticipated action film – which our own Peter Gray was invited to – about working with such an ambitious actor as Johnson, making the film with the fans in mind, and the coup of being the first comic book movie to cast Pierce Brosnan.
When you’re looking for a new project to work on together, what is the collaborative process like with Dwayne?
Hiram Garcia: The collaborative process with DJ (Dwayne Johnson) is the best. DJ is an unbelievable partner. He’s so ambitious and loves the best ideas, so it makes him a great collaborator. It’s why we have so many great partners, like Beau. We’ve made so many movies working with Dany (Garcia) (and) what we always look for in a project is something that we feel is really going to resonate with audiences. (That) it’s going to cut through something that feels a little bit fresh (and) that allows us to elevate a genre. Probably the most important thing is that whatever version of a story we’re going to tell ultimately, when audiences go in to see it, they’re going to be able to experience a bit of escapism. A bit of wish fulfilment. But ultimately leave the theatre feeling better than they did going in.
Black Adam is a character that’s been around since 1945. What was your approach in collaborating and adapting for the big screen? And what changes were made from the source material?
Beau Flynn: This is a character that we were thrilled to get off the page and put on the screen. It was really important that, even though he’s been imprisoned for 5,000 years, (he’s) a very modernised version, in terms of making sure he fit into today’s world. And, for us, we really want it to be true, at the same time, to the way Black Adam measures justice. He’s very powerful and he can be aggressive, so we wanted to make sure we keep that intact (too). We wanted to really fulfil that anti-hero version of a superhero and we wanted to make sure that it was true to the genesis of the comic book, while still fitting into a modern, global audience.
How was it assembling this team with this cast?
Beau Flynn: That was probably the best time that Hiram had on making this movie. Look at this cast! This is an extraordinary cast (with) some of the great actors of our time. I mean, Pierce Brosnan? When we were able to secure Pierce, that was a huge win for us, especially to do service to a character as beloved and as powerful as Doctor Fate. Pierce was our first choice, and then when Hiram and I were able to talk to him, he was so excited because he said all of his peers had done superhero movies, or had done Harry Potter films, and he had not done one. So to be able to be the producers that got to put Pierce Brosnan in a superhero film is so cool.
The world building in this film is amazing. Being aware of that and knowing this is the first film, was there anything you knew you had to have in this film?
Hiram Garcia: There were a bunch of touchstones that we wanted to make sure we brought to life in the film, and, you know, you see it in terms of how Black Adam approaches things. One of the things with Black Adam, and what he’s known for, is he hovers a lot. He doesn’t like to walk because why would he? He’s essentially a god. So we really went out of our way to work with our visual effects team on how we could create the scenario where Black Adam is really floating for the majority of the movie. We wanted to implement some character details from the comic book.
We really like the idea of the hero vibe that DC is known for , where heroes don’t kill bad guys, so that we could really create that juxtaposition with Black Adam, who does. There were things like that we really utilised the comics a lot for, for story points that we wanted to bring in to make sure that what we were putting on film really represented what fans were going to be looking for.
And the Justice Society is introduced here. There’s a wealth of material there. What are you most excited about?
Beau Flynn: This is just the beginning. If we have our way, and if the world shows up and raises their hand for these characters… We wanted to tell this story in a slightly different way. To have the lead of the movie be an anti-hero and (have) that be Dwayne Johnson, who is so beloved. It’s such a cool balance of his likeability and that hardcore (nature). We just want to take these characters to so many places. It’s kind of a roadmap, and we whiteboard all of (it). There’s an endless array of areas we can go with these characters.
Hiram Garcia: What we love to do in this space, too, is make this for the fans. I think if you’re a fan and you watch this movie, you’ll feel that there’s things that are done in here (for you). That’s always been Dwayne’s foundation (his) connection with audiences. That’s why he has such a huge social media following, and everything he’s ever done has always involved fan interaction. For us to be able to introduce the JSA and Black Adam, all you have to do is research the JSA and (tell us) who do you want to see stories on. We’re always listening (and) we’re always going to do what we can to tell those stories. This has always been a relationship between us and the fans, and to bring this movie to life is a continuation of that.
Black Adam is scheduled for release in Australian theatres from October 20th, 2022.
