r/Shazaam

The comments with Google’s responses provide great clarity about this!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Retconned/comments/1uatggf/comment/othl0jm/?context=1&screen_view_count=2

Try wrongly saying that screenplay is a hoax now! No, DON’T SAY THAT!!! As I said, there must be different variants of Shazaam in different realities and everyone else is recalling different variants but I recall watching the Shazaam variant of that script! THIS IS THE ANSWER to this mystery for two realities at least - this one and the one where they were able to distribute that Shazaam. That Shazaam is likely one of the two movies that Full Moon intended to release theatrically after signing a contract with Paramount in October 1992, about 2 years before the date shown on that script, but when Paramount cancelled that deal and took a tax write-off on Shazaam, it had to be vaulted and those that worked on it were sworn to secrecy. I believe the name Paul Krieg as one of the writers of that screenplay is likely a pseudonym for Paul Michael Glaser, who not only directed KAZAAM but is also credited as having written the story that the Kazaam script is based on! He worked at Interscope Communications at that time. Interscope had deals with Paramount and Disney! Disney produced Kazaam. The Shazaam screenplay has multiple references to other movies by Full Moon, including Magic Island, referenced by the ship in a bottle, and Puppet Master 4 and 5, which were originally intended to be one of the movies they were going to release theatrically! The other one is not named in the available documentation. The reason it shows the date November 16th, 1994 on the screenplay is because it’s a post-production screenplay, which is a real practice. John Candy was originally going to play the character Sinbad played in Houseguest, but he passed away on March 4th, 1994. Houseguest was filmed beginning on May 9th, 1994. Houseguest was produced by Hollywood Pictures and Caravan. Hollywood Pictures was owned by Disney! That’s why Sinbad was cast as that character in Houseguest, because he was already there acting in Shazaam at that time and they noticed him there and realized he could play that character! So it was already fully filmed before May 9th, 1994! Everyone who worked on it is sworn to secrecy because there might be major lawsuits and fines if they admitted it. The reason that Paramount dropped the theatrical deal might be because it was costing too much to produce Shazaam. It’s said that Paul Michael Glaser got the idea for Kazaam when he went to a basketball game Shaquille O’Neal played in in early 1995 and said “He should play a genie.” That’s because he already wrote a genie movie with Sinbad as the genie which was fully realized and put on tape, which I recall watching in another timeline where they were able to distribute it!