For a superhero who can run so fast, it’s astounding has slowly The Flash’s movie has been making progress. Although it was one of the first DC Extended Universe projects to be announced, the Scarlet Speedster’s feature has dealt with numerous delays and setbacks in the half decade since then. Well, perhaps IT director Andy Muschietti can help get things back on track.
According to THR, Andy Muschietti is in talks to direct The Flash, which he would also produce with his partner and sister, Barbara Muschietti alongside Michael Disco, who was already on board. Game Night duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were previously attached to direct The Flash, but they’ve apparently moved on. Ezra Miller, however, who’s already appeared as Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League, is still set to reprise DC’s Fastest Man Alive.
But that’s not the only big development concerning The Flash to come out. Back in March, it was reported that Ezra Miller was teaming up with longtime DC Comics writer Grant Morrison to work on a script for The Flash that would take the character in a darker direction than what John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein had in mind.
Rather than use the story that Ezra Miller and Grant Morrison came up with, Warner Bros has instead hired Bumblebee’s Christina Hodson to write a new Flash script. This won’t be Hodson’s first foray into the DCEU, as she wrote the upcoming Birds of Prey and is also working on the Batgirl movie.
Andy Muschietti, who also directed this September’s IT: Chapter 2 and is attached to helm the live action adaptation of Attack on Titan, is just the latest director to be associated with The Flash. In the earlier days of the project’s development, Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa were also on board to direct, but both departed due to creative differences. Folks like Matthew Vaughn and Robert Zemeckis were also once rumored to take over The Flash.
While John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s exit from The Flash is described as “voluntary,” they decided to leave after the “months of tensions” over disagreements with Ezra Miller about the tone of the project weighed it down. The duo, who already have some superhero movie experience under their belts by writing Spider-Man: Homecoming, are now off to creative endeavors.
Assuming Andy Muschietti does officially sign on to The Flash, he will be the latest horror director to contribute to the DCEU, with others including Aquaman’s James Wan, Shazam!’s David F. Sandberg and the upcoming The Suicide Squad’s James Gunn. Along with the IT movies, Muschietti made his feature filmmaking debut with the supernatural Mama.
When we left off with Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen at the end of Justice League, he’d obtained a job at the Central City Police Department and was fully embracing his status as a superhero. For a while, The Flash movie was going to be an adaptation of the Flashpoint storyline, but now it’s anyone’s guess what kind of challenge Barry will have to deal with in his standalone adventure.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on how The Flash is coming along, but for now, check out our DC movies guide to find out what else this franchise has coming up.
