On the heels of scoring her first Oscar nominations and the project being confirmed to be in development at the studio, DC Films’ Zatanna pic is picking up steam as Promising Young Woman writer/director Emerald Fennell has signed on to pen the script for the magic-wielding superhero story, according to Variety. The project hails from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and will mark the character’s live-action film and DC Extended Universe debuts.
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After getting nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, Fennell has recently earned three major Academy Award including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for her feature directorial debut film Promising Young Woman which starred Carey Mulligan. She also received praise for her work in the second season of BBC America’s Killing Eve which was nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series back in 2019.
Created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, Zatanna Zatara made her first appearance in the Hawkman comic books in November 1964. She is the daughter of a famous stage magician named Giovanni Zatara, who have debuted during the Golden Age of Comics. Naturally, Zatanna inherited his father’s magical powers and career as a professional stage magician. Some of her cool powers are the ability to control the elements, telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, and manipulation of reality.
Even though she has yet to make her live-action film debut, she made her first live-action appearance in the beloved DC series Smallville, was portrayed by Serinda Swan. However, DC fans got more familiar with her through her appearances in various animated series such as Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League Unlimited, and Young Justice as well as in most recent TV shows DC Super Hero Girls and Harley Quinn.
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Word of a potential Zatanna film at DC and Bad Robot first began swirling last summer, though wasn’t officially confirmed until this month’s AT&T investor day presentation confirmed that both it and a Batgirl solo film were in fact in development alongside the Dwayne Johnson-led Black Adam, James Gunn’s highly-anticipated The Suicide Squad, slated for an August release, Andy Muschietti’s The Flash, Ava DuVernay’s New Gods, Aquaman 2 and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
The film marks the latest DC project in development at Abrams’ label under its overall deal with WarnerMedia which includes a Justice League Dark series at HBO Max and a new Superman film with Ta-Nehisi Coates penning the script reportedly centered around a Black iteration of the hero.
(Photo Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
