The general public has been waiting for The Flash movie (in its current form) for nearly a decade, and there’s still three months to go until its wide release. However, some who weren’t involved with the upcoming DC movie’s production have already had the privilege of seeing it early, and this reportedly includes Tom Cruise. For those of you wondering what the Top Gun: Maverick star thought of The Flash, apparently we can count him among its earliest fans.
This revelation comes from THR, which shared that Tom Cruise “loved” The Flash so much that he “cold called” director Andy Muschietti to pass along his praise. According to the outlet, Cruise’s early viewing of The Flash came after he met with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav in February, and after Zaslav mentioned how good the movie was, that made Cruise curious enough to want to see it. Zaslav obliged this request, but it wasn’t a simple matter of emailing the star of the Mission: Impossible franchise a screener.
An insider states that a messenger was sent to Tom Cruise’s Beverly Hills home to deliver a copy of The Flash. It’s unclear what format the movie was in, but this messenger stayed with Cruise for the entire time he was watching it, and once this screening of The Flash was over, Cruise gave the copy back to the messenger, who then returned it to Warner Bros. Pictures. As for Cruise’s call with Andy Muschietti, the actor reportedly told the director something along the lines of The Flash being “everything you want in a movie” and “this is the kind of movie we need now.”
While it’s interesting to hear that Tom Cruise approves of The Flash, this also serves as yet another example of him being a proponent of the theatrical experience. Just last month, director Steven Spielberg was recorded telling Cruise that he “saved Hollywood’s ass” and may have “saved theatrical distribution” with Top Gun: Maverick. The sequel was originally supposed to come out in 2020 and was pushed back several times, but Cruise was determined that it play on the big screen rather than be sent directly to VOD/streaming. Maverick ultimately opened Memorial Day weekend in 2022 and made over $1.4 billion worldwide, and you’re now free to stream it in the comfort of your own home with a Paramount+ subscription.
Per this new report, Tom Cruise feels that The Flash will also be an important movie for theaters this summer, which is hardly surprising considering what was teased in The Flash trailer last month. And Cruise certainly isn’t alone being one of the lucky few who saw The Flash early and enjoyed it, as the movie was said to be “extraordinarily well received” in test screenings last year. Warner Bros. also allegedly believes that The Flash could be as big a hit as The Dark Knight was for the studio in the summer of 2008.
The world at large will be able to see how The Flash turned out when it races into theaters on June 16. Meanwhile, you can stream Ezra Miller’s previous appearances as Barry Allen in the DC Extended Universe with an HBO Max subscription.
