Entertainment

Flash directors explain why Warner Bros. chose them

Warner Bros. has been struggling with its DC Comics slate of films and it’s not just the ones that have already released. Some of its in-development projects, most notably The Flash are having a hard time just getting off the ground. After the departure of two directors in Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa, fans finally heaved a sigh of relief when news broke about directing duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein being roped in to bring The Flash, now known as Flashpoint to life. Now, courtesy Collider, the directing duo have shed some light on what drew Warner Bros. towards them and how they ended up in a position to negotiate a deal. That’s right, the duo have not been finalized just yet and are currently brokering a deal with the studio.

As was rightly speculated, the duo’s work in Game Night and their script for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming is what largely drew the studio towards them. Moreover, while Warner Bros. were eyeing the duo for the Flash movie, they were open to having the directors helm any of their potential upcoming projects. Explaining this further, Goldstein said:

“They were interested in us because of Game Night and Spider-Man. Because of that combination they did kind of say, ‘We’d like you to consider one of our movies.’ So we read a number of the scripts, and that was one—we’re huge fans of the character, I collected the comic books as a kid. It was an exciting possibility.”

Daley further added to this, elaborating on how exactly Warner Bros. approached them:

“They gave us a list of DC properties and said, ‘Is there anything you’d be interested in?’, in no way promising us anything at all.”

On what drew them to Flash in general, from among the pantheon of heroes available to choose from, Daley again commented on the character’s groundedness as compared to DC’s other heroes as being a prime motivator:

“Just the fact that the character is unique from other superheroes in that he doesn’t completely have his shit together like Superman does. It’s more of a ground-level superhero.”

Finally, there’s every chance that Warner Bros. is looking for a movie tonally similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming as was signaled by Goldstein when he explained the approach they would be taking towards creating the tone of the movie:

“It’s a relatable way in to a superhero movie in some of the same ways that Peter Parker was for the Marvel side of things.”

Original set for release on March 2018, Flashpoint is currently without a release date. With Ezra Miller being almost done with his schedule on Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Warner Bros. would be hoping to kick-off development on the movie as soon as possible, before Miller gets absorbed in by some other project.