Screen Rant » the flash

Who Should Play The Flash?

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:43:35 +0000

Today we’re presenting yet another installment of our superhero movie fantasy casting feature, this time for the still-in-development big screen adaptation of The Flash. This film has been stop-and-go (pun intended) for awhile now, with previous versions of the script having been turned in by big name writers (David S. Goyer), and some big name actors having been eyed for the role (or so rumor would have it).

As of last week we have word that The Flash is coming along at a good pace, so as the story of the ‘The World’s Fastest Man’ steps closer and closer to becoming a cinematic reality, we stop to ask ourselves:

Who should play The Flash?

THE RACE TO GLORY

The Flash is one of the oldest heroes in the DC Universe, but it would be a stretch to call him one of the most famous (despite the 1990s TV series). Sure, the character is well known by the comic book fanboy nation – and any JoBlo off the street could probably tell you that “He’s the guy in the red suit who runs really fast.” However, I’d be surprised if that same JoBlo could tell you the names of Flash’s alter egos over the years (Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West) – or if you could even find a handful of fanboys willing to tell you that The Flash is “The most awesome superhero ever!”

By current estimate, I would place The Flash just a couple notches under Iron Man (before the film came out) in terms of public recognition/love, hovering somewhere around the same plane as Green Lantern. Of course, I must acknowledge that both The Flash and Green Lantern have made serious comic book comebacks over the course of the last half decade – thanks in overwhelming part to DC Comics writer Geoff Johns, who resurrected both Silver Age Flash and Green Lantern (Barry Allen and Hal Jordan) and has written storylines for both characters that have gone on to become modern comic book classics.

Did I mention that Geoff Johns is also acting as a consultant on The Flash movie?

Like Iron Man, The Flash faces the daunting task of elevating a C-list superhero to blockbuster movie height$. There is no doubt that Iron Man got a head start in that same department by casting Robert Downey Jr. – so when casting The Flash, I say forget all this talk about “getting a no name” to play the part; in this case, name recognition is a MUST.

WHO IS THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE?

Back during Comic Con this year I had a chance to toss Geoff Johns a question about the treatment he did for The Flash script (which is now in the hands of screenwriter Dan Mazeau). In the Johns’ response (which you can read HERE), he alluded to several things hinting that we might be seeing Barry Allen, the “Silver Age” Flash in the movie version, instead of “Modern Age” Flash, Wally West, as many fans initially assumed. Of course this all just speculation – but it makes for one doozy of a job for those of us in the fantasy casting business!

That said, I’ll have to cast BOTH versions of The Flash just to be safe. So, if you’re interested, here are my picks for who should play Barry Allen or Wally West, based on the criteria that the actor for either role needs to be both funny and dramatic and able to exude heroism – not to mention having the physical body type of a long distance sprinter (let’s not forget that!).

[And no, Ryan Reynolds is NOT a candidate! He's already Green Lantern AND Deadpool! That's enough!]

Continue to read our picks to play The Flash…

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‘The Flash’ Development Slows Down Just A Bit [Updated]

Rob Keyes — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:05:52 +0000

[Update: Dan Mazeau, the current screenwriter behind The Flash has sent a message to IGN clarifying that there are no delays/development issues - that everything is going according to plan and looking great for the fans - Read it here]

With the Green Lantern film moving full steam head, scheduled to start production next year, what about the other DC comic book character films? There will undoubtedly be a third Batman sooner or later, but what about The Flash?

At San Diego Comic-Con this summer, comic book and screen writer Geoff Johns was tight-lipped and held back on revealing any details on his script treatment for the flick so we didn’t have too much to go on with the status of the project until now.

IGN recently spoke with Charles Roven, a producer on The Dark Knight, and apparently the future of The Flash is a little unclear at the moment – as is, Roven’s involvement…

In the interview, Roven explains that he was involved but that he was removed from the project because the The Flash was speeding in the direction Warner Brothers had in mind.

“I was involved at one point with The Flash… And Warner Bros. came to me and said, ‘The work that you’ve been doing hasn’t yet resulted in something that any of us, including the filmmaking team, feel could be greenlit as a movie. We’re trying to accomplish something that takes into account the entire, rich DC character world, and we’d like to pull it back. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to be a part of it. We just want to take a different kind of approach. Do you mind if we try that?’ If we had something that was really working…”

Well, we at least know that The Flash is part of DC Entertainment’s game plan. By “rich DC character world,” does WB mean that they want more characters involved, possibly crossing over with their other in-development projects like Green Lantern? Roven continued,

“Like, for example, they had something that was more or less working for them on Green Lantern, and now you have Martin Campbell directing it…But we didn’t. The David Goyer screenplay, that didn’t work. Goyer left the project. We then embarked with David Dobkin, trying to come up with another approach. We hadn’t even hired a writer at that point. So for us, we completely understood. I’ve been making movies with Warner Bros. for 15 years, so that was fine, but I hope one day there’s a way for me to get re-involved in the project. “

It’s not a nice development history and that worries me about the final product. Hopefully, when things are back on track, we don’t get something rushed and unpolished.

I’d like to see more DC live-action flicks come out to compete with the onslaught of features by Marvel Studios and Fox Studios, and like those two studios’ franchises of film, I’d like to see the DC solo character titles cross-over leading to some team-up event.

What do you want from The Flash movie and DC Entertainment’s line-up?

– More as we hear it, at ScreenRant.com.

Source: IGN

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DC Entertainment: What’s The Game Plan?

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:19:13 +0000

Yesterday we found out that Warner Bros. has created DC Entertainment Inc. (DCE) to better expand the DC Comics into a multimedia brand of steel . Now comes the inevitable question of “What’s the game plan?”

MTV Splash Page posted a nice piece declaring which DC properties should be put on fast-track under the DCE banner, and this being Friday and all, I thought I’d once again do a little call-and-response on the topic (I now consider Splash Page’s Josh Wigler to be something of a pen-pal).

So in response to the call, here’s my take on the DC Entertainment venture and what paths it should be considering…

BIGGER PICTURE BUSINESS

DC Entertainment Inc. President Diane Nelson has already been grilled by the press and thick-skinned exec has been pretty forthright with her opinions. As she told The Wrap earlier this week:

“…I’m the first one to admit, I’m not by my nature a comic fan. It’s not what I’m bringing to the party. We have so many experts who will remain the cornerstone of DC Entertainment. What I bring to the party is a skill at moving properties and brands through Time Warner as a company… additionally it will be about how invested our content distribution is in the DC library. If our businesses feel that they have greater access and enthusiasm for new characters to incubate.”

Now some people are going to read that quote and worry that Time Warner is going to “corporatize” (read: taint) their favorite DC properties. I’m going to keep in mind that Nelson is the same lady who helped transform Harry Potter from a lucrative book franchise into a multimedia/merchandising empire, loved by both Potter devotees and newcomers who just know the films. Nelson understands how to take what is at the resonating core of a character and/or story and fit it into the bigger profit picture.

For DC Superheroes, I suspect Nelson aims to give us more Dark Knight quality films and Arkham Asylum video games (read: ventures which transform the core appeal of the properties into commercial appeal), and fewer Catwoman disasters (read: failed ventures that tarnish both the core and commercial viability of the properties). And I see no reason at this point why she’d fail at the task.

DOING THINGS THE MARVEL WAY

No, I don’t want DC Entertainment to try to be the second coming of Marvel Studios, however, the latter did set an interesting precedent by linking all their Avengers related films – Captain America, Iron Man, Thor – in one shared continuity, complete with cinematic cameo crossovers.

Should Christopher Nolan’s Batman universe be disrupted for the sake of a Superman cameo? No. Should The Green Lantern maybe feature an appearance from Supes or (better yet) The Flash? Absolutely. And what would be the reasoning behind doing so? Remember a little project called Justice League that DC/WB tried and failed and failed and failed to get off the ground awhile back? If you want to expand your brand, getting your heroes onscreen together where everybody can revel in them is a great way to do it.

Click to continue reading about how DC Entertainment can expand its brand…

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Geoff Johns Tries NOT to Discuss The Flash & Green Lantern Movies

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:41:05 +0000

We recently reported that DC comics writer Geoff Johns (The Flash, Green Lantern) had turned in a treatment for The Flash movie to studio DC/Warner Bros. Well, it so happens that Johns was a featured (read: very popular) panelist at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International and, after a last minute quick-switch I as there to cover the event.

Now, Hollywood legalities are a tricky thing, so Johns couldn’t say TOO much about his work on The Flash script, or his opinion of The Green Lantern feature film – but thanks to some good old-fashioned Screen Rant investigative reporting, we do have a gem or two to share with you.

THE FLASH

For those not into comic books, Geoff Johns has been writing

The Flash series since 2000 and was also responsible for such notable (comic book) events such as the return of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in 2005; re-launching the Teen Titans in 2003; and he even did some work on the book JSA alongside David S. Goyer, writer of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He’s pretty famous and beloved by modern comic book fans everywhere and (for my money at least) there’s no better writer to be handling The Flash script right now.

So just what exactly is Geoff Johns’ cinematic vision of the Scarlett Speedester? Sorry guys, he couldn’t legally divulge what the plot points of his script treatment were – but that didn’t stop me from asking him what core elements of the character he had in mind when sitting down to hammer out the big-screen version of The Flash. Said Johns:

“We’re caught up in a world that’s obsessed with speed these days. Texting, faster downloading… We’re always looking for ways to speed things up, it can be hard to slow ourselves down.”

He wanted to expound on that explanation, but his editor (and his own good sense) cautioned him from saying any more. Johns did add, however, that part of his recent storyline in the Flash: Rebirth comic book dealt with the resurrected Barry Allen’s attempts to deal with “the seduction” of speed and being lost in the speed force. When asked a direct question about whether or not it would be Barry Allen we see in a Flash movie, Johns had no answer to give – but based on his impassioned description of the character in modern context, I wouldn’t be surprised if Barry Allen DID turn out to be the Flash that graces the silver screen, or if the film explores the many meanings of the term “moving too fast.” Guess we’ll know more if and or when the film moves forward.

THE GREEN LANTERN

In addition to writing The Flash comic book, Geoff Johns has been arguably the most acclaimed and celebrated writer of the Green Lantern comic book series ever. Even in the panel, fan after fan approached the microphone just to tell Mr. Johns that his recent stories (”Green Lantern: Rebirth,” “The Sinestro Corps,” the upcoming “Blackest Night”) are the ONLY reasons why they decided to get familiar with Green Lantern.

Naturally, as the guy bringing Green Lantern into the limelight (no pun) on the page, one must wonder what Geoff Johns thinks about the upcoming feature-film adaptation of The Green Lantern and the recent casting of Ryan Reynolds as the titular hero. Luckily for us, one eager fan in the panel asked that very question! Said Johns about Reynolds being cast as Hal Jordan:

“It’s great, he’s got the swagger for early Hal, definitely. And Martin Campbell directing… I’m psyched about it.”

Judging from all the things Johns couldn’t say, I think it’s a safe bet that he’s seen what’s in the works for The Green Lantern and if HE’S confident about it, I think it’s ok for the rest of us to start getting excited too.

So that’s it for the panel with Geoff Johns. Comic book fans who have been keeping up with the rebirths of Hal Jordan, Barry Allen and the events leading up to the “Blackest Night” storyline: you can expect more dark horror-style storytelling, more deaths and dead hero resurrections. Oh, and SPOILER: Hal Jordan throwing down with the “Black Lantern” version of Abin Sur (that’s a little gem for the die hard Green Lantern fans out there).

The Green Lantern is slated for release on June 17, 2011.

The Flash movie is still in the planning stages and has no release date yet.

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Aquaman & The Flash Movies Moving (Sort of) Forward

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:20:34 +0000

The Hollywood Reporter recently did an extensive report on some of the new projects that DC Comics and partner Warner Bros. have in the works. There was mention of an Adam Strange movie, a Teen Titans project and even talk of two Green Arrow films – but the two biggest nuggets of news had to do with progress that is (sort of) being made on the big-screen adaptations of Aquaman and The Flash.

THE FLASH

According to the report, DC Comics writer Geoff Johns recently did a new treatment for a Flash movie, which was previously scripted by Dan Mazeau. Johns has been writing The Flash comic book series since 2000 and was also responsible for such notable (comic book) events such as the return of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in 2005; re-launching the Teen Titans in 2003; and he even did some work on the book JSA with a guy named David S. Goyer you might know. Suffice to say: Geoff Johns knows his way around the DC universe.

It’s also ironic to hear that he’s helping to bring Flash to the big-screen: Johns has recently been busy with Flash on the comic book page, working to bring back fan-favorite “silver age” Flash, Barry Allen – who, might I add, could be the very character Warner Bros. uses for The Flash movie, especially since Ryan Reynolds (the top fan-nominated candidate to play “modern day” Flash, Wally West) has already signed-on to play Green Lantern/Hal Jordan.

I expect DC/Warner Bros. will be showing Barry Allen a lot of love in the near future. It’s awesome to hear a proven comic book vet like Geoff Johns is a the center of it all.

AQUAMAN

We saw it on Entourage and it looked pretty awesome; then we saw it again on the CW’s blink-and-it’s-gone TV pilot (which became a cult-hit-download); now we’re finally getting word on the Aquaman feature film.

Reportedly Aquaman is “in production” over at Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company. I only use the quotes because a quick look at the company’s extensive roster of films-in-the-works pretty much places Aquaman (for me at least) in the “believe-it-when-I-see-it” category.

Don’t get me wrong: I hope Appian Way is really moving ahead with an Aquaman film, because if DC/WB wants to do things “The Marvel Way” and start building their superhero properties toward bigger joint paydays, then after The Green Lantern hits in 2011 they need to start getting other second-tier heroes like Flash, like Aquaman out on the big-screens. Especially if Chris Nolan is still on the fence about another Batman film, while Superman might slip out of DC/WB’s grasp next year.

IMHO, It’s time for DC/WB to officially go to the benches. Let’s hope we hear more about both Aquaman and The Flash in the near future.

Sources: Slash Film, Beyond Hollywood & THR

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And ‘The Flash’ Might Be… Neil Patrick Harris?

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:50:07 +0000

Ready for a wild rumor? How about Neil Patrick Harris being pursued to play DC comic book superhero The Flash? The last we had heard, Ryan Reynolds was in the running (get it?) for the role, but with the upcoming Wolverine movie it seems like his superhero destiny may be tied up as Deadpool.

But this, if true, is pretty much out of left field.

The Flash has been on again, off again and now on again with the recent addition of a screenwriter. We first mentioned it back in 2004 when David Goyer was supposedly going to write the script (he went on to write a little movie you may have heard of: The Dark Knight). Then there was nothing heard for three years until the announcement that Goyer was not writing the movie, but that Shawn Levy was attached to direct, then comedy director David Dobkin. That news quietly faded away and nothing was heard until earlier this month, when word surfaced that Dan Mazeau was attached to write the screenplay.

Now comes possible “insider” news that Neil Patrick Harris and possibly Scott Porter (according to ThinkMcFlyThink.com) are being looked at to play the Scarlet Speedster. Scott played the young Rex Racer in Speed Racer and has a recurring role on Friday Night Lights.

And of course who doesn’t know who Neil Patrick Harris is? For a 35 year old guy, he seems like he’s been around forever… starting out years ago as Doogie Howser, M.D. and then appearing in Starship Troopers (yes, he was in that). After that he bounced around doing one-shot appearances in TV episodes and a lot of cartoon voiceover work including Justice League and Spider-Man.

But what brought him back into popularity was his wild character in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, which led to a leading role on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Finally, most recently he played a supervillain in the cult hit Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if this pans out – no doubt he could pull it off if he buffed up and I think he’s got the acting chops to do it.

Again, keep in mind this is FAR from confirmed – but what do you think about the possibility of Neil Patrick Harris as The Flash?

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The Flash Movie May Finally Have A Writer

Sabrina Cognata — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:49:11 +0000

With the major boom in the movie industry being superheroes and the films about them, studios have been going down the line making films about the most popular in the genre. As this has been going on, it’s left a lot of people wondering when certain films will be made.

If The Flash has been high on your list of films that need to be made, then your worries are over. IESB is reporting that screenwriter, Dan Mazeau, has become attached to the film. Dan has most currently penned the screen version of the unreleased Johnny Quest film.

Although, Warner Brothers has said they’re putting all DC Comics films on hold, the folks over at IESB are reporting otherwise:

“We’ve double checked with multiple sources and can say with 100% certainty that Mazeau is currently writing a script for the lightening fast superhero.”

Although, there is no confirmations about the legitimacy of the sources, the claims continue to hold some validity as they continue to be reported due to the fact that producer Charles Roven wouldn’t confirm nor deny the reports.

I suppose this could all be some sort of perfectly calculated ruse to confuse the public, but I highly doubt it. Probably, Mazeau is attached to the film in some way, but nothing can be certain until Warner Bros. decides not to tease us lowly film-goers anymore. Master, may I have another?

Source: IESB

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The Flash Movie STILL Moving At A Snail’s Pace

Kofi Outlaw — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:12:01 +0000

Is this ironic or what: the fastest guy in the whole comic book universe is the slowest one getting to the box office.

Screen Rant has been keeping careful tabs on the (lack of) progress concerning The Flash movie. For those with long memories, the blink-and-you-miss-it exploits of Wally West (aka The Flash) were supposedly going to be freeze-framed on the big screen following the release of the fabled Justice League movie. This would’ve served as the well from which spin-off films like The Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman would be drawn.

Well, unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last six months, you know that Justice League is currently D.O.A.–so where does that leave the projects that were supposed to be its by-products?

In the case of Green Lantern, it seems things are moving forward even faster than planned: the movie has (what insiders are already calling) a kick-ass script, is pretty epic in scope, and DC/Warner Bros. seems to be fully committed to getting the film up and out for a 2010 release.

In the case of The Flash, however, things are looking… not so great. Producer of The Dark Knight and Warner Bros. insider Charles Roven has been the primary source of Flash movie news thus far. After letting the blogoshpere know some months ago that Flash was stuck in development limbo, Roven was recently sighted at this year’s Spike TV Scream Awards and was kind enough to let Flash fans know how far the project has progressed since his initial report: not one step.

Pretty ironic for comic books’ fastest hero, no?

No word yet on where this non-development leaves David Dobkin (Fred Clause) who was initially tapped to helm The Flash. No word yet on anything else surrounding this project (if it can still be called a “project” at all). Seriously though, I don’t see what the hold up is: maybe if Green Lantern performs well, DC/Warner will finally get off their duffs. In the meantime, give’em hell Marvel Studios!

We’ll let you know if any other news lands in our lap. Be prepared for a long wait, though. For now, sound off and tell us how you feel about DC/Warner Bros. denying you The Flash movie you’ve been waiting for.

Source: Super Hero Hype

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Warner Bros Finally Gets Serious About DC Comics

Niall Browne — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:36:31 +0000

It has been a long time in coming, but it now appears that Warner Bros. has finally decided to make use of their stable of DC Comics characters.

Following the financial and critical success of The Dark Knight Warner Bros. has realized that they are sitting on a gold mine – not only from box office receipts, but also from DVD, television, video games and other sources of revenue.

Last month the company held a strategy meeting in an attempt to figure out what was needed in order for them to match Marvel Comics in the comic book movie stakes, and it would appear that they have finally come up with a plan.

Variety spoke with Warner Bros head honchos Jeff Robinov and Alan Horn who touched on topics such as the sequel to The Dark Knight (and director Chris Nolan’s involvement), the development of DC Characters movies and the chances of there ever being a Justice League movie.

It looks like the company is about to go to town on their stable of iconic characters that includes: Batman, Superman, The Flash, The Green Lantern, Aquaman and Wonder Woman.

Warner Bros chief Alan Horn said that Warner and DC were committed to turning:

“the properties into viable movie product in an intelligent way so that we introduce them like planes on a runway. They have to be set up the right way and lined up the right way and all take off one at a time and fly safe and fly straight.”

With regards to Justice League, Jeff Robinov as good as admitted that the studio almost made a terrible mistake. Robinov said:

“We’re not off the notion of a Justice League. There’s a massive interest and knowledge in the comicbook industry and it takes time to sort of catch up and understand the characters and the history, where they’ve intersected with each other and what their worlds are. That’s part of the education that we’re going through.”

There’s a lot of B.S. that flies around Hollywood, but it’s good to see somebody own up to making a mistake – or as close to owning up as you can in the City of Angels.

That said the studio isn’t totally off the idea of the multi-character superhero film. Gregory Noveck senior VP of creative affairs for DC Comics stated:

“These are big, iconic characters. So when you make them into a movie, you’d better be shooting for a pretty high standard. You’re not always going to reach it, but you have to be shooting for it. We’re going to make a Justice League movie, whether it’s now or 10 years from now. But we’re not going to do it and Warners is not going to do it until we know it’s right.”

With regards to the sequel to The Dark Knight, there is a deal with Christopher Nolan – if he is interested, but Horn says: We have no idea where Chris is going with this. We haven’t had any conversations with him about it.”

I find it very hard to believe that in the month since The Dark Knight has opened and broken all sorts of box office records that the studio has not started talking to the brains behind the film. You can bet that Warner Bros. wants to get into the Nolan-Batman business but it sounds to me like Nolan is playing a bit of hard ball (echoes of the Marvel/Iron Man/Jon Favereau situation). If he does decide to do the film (and I’m pretty sure that he will) Warner Bros will be bankrolling some of his passion projects for the next few years.

There will be more announcements next month with regards to Warner and DC’s plans, but it looks like the studio has finally decided to fight back on the comic book movie front. It would appear that Marvel will finally be getting some serious competition for the superhero limelight.

Source: Variety

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‘Flash’ Movie Moving At A Snail’s Pace

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:23:12 +0000

The guys over at Slash Film were at a a recent press junket for The Dark Knight when they caught up with producer Charles Roven, a.k.a. the guy responsible for bringing both the Batman Begins trilogy and the upcoming Flash movie to theaters near you. And he had news to tell.

Unfortunately, the news from Mr. Roven was grim. He basically said that due to the WGA strike last winter, and in face of the looming actors strike, the Scarlett Speedster is looking pretty winded right about now, as far as the cinema goes, anyway.

“We had hoped to be able to get a new draft going before the writers’ strike and we weren’t able to,” Roven admitted. “And since the writers’ strike, we just haven’t been able to find the right creative compatibility between what we’re looking for and a writer and you know, we’re a little bit dragging our feet, we’re just waiting to see what’s going to happen with this actor’s strike, you know.”

Boo. Maybe the Wachowski Bros. need to stop worrying about Plastic Man’s stretchy parts and start some quick thinking on how to get in on a Fla$h franchise. (They’re shoe-ins! Just make the whole thing bullet-time! Bam! Instant hit!) (Hollywood, my number IS available.)

Seriously though, Aquaman and Flash are two superhero movies I really, really, would like to see get made in my lifetime, please. DC needs to take a page from the book of Marvel and get on top of their business. What do you think?

Source: Slash Film

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Flash And Green Lantern Spin-Offs Have Directors

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:45:47 +0000

Warner Bros. seems to be hot under the collar to get a batch of superhero movies out the door. Although the Justice League movie seems to be mired in casting hell and surrounded by rumors of being more like a Teen Titans movie, the studio has apparently locked in directors for movie versions of both The Flash and Green Lantern.

The word is that ~~these are supposed to be spin-offs~~ The Flash is supposed to be a spin-off of the Justice League film, so I can only assume that once they finally get that one cast that they’ll have their leads for one of these two movies.

Green Lantern is getting director Greg Berlanti, a guy with lots of non-superhero TV experience and one romantic comedy movie under his belt. I don’t know what that means for the film. After all, look at how Iron Man seems to be turning out with non-super-movie Jon Favreau at the helm (that would be great, for those of you who aren’t regular Screen Rant readers). A couple of my readers have pointed out that they are planning on basing the film on the Hal Jordan version of GL instead of the John Stewart version who is supposedly going to appear in the Justice League film.

On the other hand The Flash has been handed to David Dobkin. You may be asking: David Who? Well he’s the guy who directed Wedding Crashers, Shanghai Nights and the upcoming wacky Christmas comedy Fred Claus.

The Hollywood studio director selection logic process continues to elude me. I know that version of The Flash they’re going to use is Wally West, who as far as I know has been portrayed as kind of a jokester, but how does that lead to hiring a full-on slapstick comedy director? Is this going to be a comedy or a superhero movie?

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Sources: /Film & Superherohype

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Prepare For A (Not So) Funny Flash?

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:21:42 +0000

A couple of days after the announcement that David Goyer is no longer involved in the movie about DC Comics character The Flash comes the news that Shawn Levy is stepping in to direct. The news comes to me from the Hollywood Reporter via Comic Book Resources.

Now on the one hand, that means the movie is far from dead… great news, right? Sorry… no. On the other hand I don’t think it exactly spills rays of sunshine on the project.

Why do I say that? Let’s have a look at the collective resumes of David Goyer (who is out) and Shawn Levy (who is in)…

David Goyer
The Good: Wrote the screenplays for Dark City, Blade and Batman Begins.

The Bad: Wrote the screenplays for Blade II and Blade: Trinity. Directed Blade: Trinity.

Shawn Levy
The Good: Um, ok… let’s see… directed Cheaper by the Dozen? (Best I could do. That’s not really good for this movie, but at least I liked that Steve Martin flick.)

The Bad: Directed Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther (YIKES!) and Night at the Museum. Overall almost nothing but comedies, and as if in confirmation:

Sources said that Levy, who before “Museum” had been known for such comedies as “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “The Pink Panther,” has no intention of making “Flash” a comedy but is aiming for a lighter movie than previous Warners comic book adaptations, such as “Batman Begins” and “Superman Returns.

As I wrote here, I do think that as a character The Flash needs a lighter treatment than Batman, but lighter than Superman? If someone other than a comedy director was at the helm, I might not be as worried. What’s really wierd (disturbing?) is that Goyer supposedly wrote a darker script, which the studio didn’t like yet they’re using elements from it for the new story. Scary.

Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing. At least Roven was involved with Batman Begins and the upcoming sequel The Dark Knight. Looking at Gartner’s background, he must know somebody.

Sources: CBR News and Hollywood Reporter

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RIP: Flash And Wonder Woman Movies

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 16:13:23 +0000

Talk about a one-two punch.

On the same day come separate announcements stating that David Goyer is no longer writing and directing The Flash and that Joss Whedon is no longer involved with Wonder Woman.

Sucks to be a fan of either one of those now, I’m afraid. I predict development limbo for both of them, if they ever get made. I say that because I really don’t think that the superhero movie genre will be “hot” indefinitely. As a matter of fact this year may be the peak, with three superhero movies being released (Spiderman III, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Ghost Rider).

I really think that 2008 may be the tail end of the “great superhero movie era” with Iron Man and The Hulk (I think) slated for release. Movie genres come and go in cycles in Hollywood (remember after Star Wars when a new Sci Fi movie would come out pretty much every month?), and there’s only so much money to go around for productions.

I was really looking forward to The Flash as I think it’s a great character with a lot of potential. It was too bad that when the short-lived TV series came out it was on the heels of Tim Burton’s Batman… they tried to emulate that dark style for the TV show and it was just plain wrong. The Flash was never a “dark” character, so the show should haven’t attempted to emulate the style of the Batman movies of the time.

As far as Wonder Woman goes, the only reason I was looking forward to that was the fact that Joss Whedon was in charge. His tragically short-lived TV series Firefly was amazing and the film version, Serenity is one of my all-time favorite movies. I just watched it with Whedon’s commentary a couple of days ago and it made me like him and the movie that much more.

Bummer all around.

Source: SuperHeroHype.com

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Review: The Flash (TV Pilot)

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:06:01 +0000

Sometimes nostalgia is best left in the past.

Have you ever had fond memories of something you watched on TV when you were younger… maybe a live action or cartoon series that you remember being the coolest thing ever? Here’s a little advice: Often it’s better to leave those episodes as sweet memories. The first time I ran into this phenomenon was when channel surfing I came across an episode of Speed Racer, one of the precursors to Anime from back in the 1960’s. When I was a kid I thought that cartoon was simply awesome, but watching it recently just killed it for me since I had no idea at the time how poorly animated and how ridiculous the plots were.

Unfortunately The Flash (just released on DVD) doesn’t even start with memories of having been an awesome show. It suffers from having been produced hot on the heels of the first Tim Burton Batman film, and the producers made the terrible decision to use the ambience of that film for this TV series as well.

For those of you unfamiliar with the character (and there have been multiple incarnations of The Flash), we start with Barry Allen, a forensic scientist for the police force. While in his lab there is a freak bolt of lightning striking him and a rack of various chemicals, the result of which imbues him with super-speed. I haven’t picked up the comic book in a while, but from what I remember the character was never “dark” like Batman. It was more of a take-place-during-the-day kind of comic book.

The show opens with a motorcycle gang terrorizing the city, throwing bombs at cars and such. It seems the gang is out of control and the police haven’t been able to do anything about it. Barry Allen’s brother and father are and were street cops/detectives and his dad seems to favor his brother due to his being a “real” cop. Hence eventually Barry will feel the need to prove himself.

We meet the gang in their hideout, and they’re all biker dudes and dude-ettes, with a scar-faced creepy leader, who demonstrates how he deals with disloyalty by blowing up a traitor on his motorcycle. It’s really seedy and I just felt it was all too creepy for this type of show.

Eventually we see Barry get whacked with the lightning bolt and discovering his powers bit by bit. At one point he travels 30 miles in less than 30 seconds and ends up passed out with his clothes shredded from the high speed of his journey. He has a girlfriend (Iris, same name as the girlfriend in the comics) who is an artist and doesn’t want a commitment. Barry hooks up with a female scientist from Star Labs (ambiguous relationship to cause romantic conflict on the show) to try and figure out exactly what’s happened to him.

At first he doesn’t want the power but eventually he embraces it through the desire for revenge when his brother is killed. Like I said, they really borrowed too much from Batman here.

The gang wants to take over the city, blah blah blah, etc., etc. The pilot is just under two hours long but it felt WAY longer than that. If you want to rent The Flash I would recommend just fast forwarding through to the scenes where you get to see him use his powers. The few times you get to see him in action it’s kind of fun to watch. BTW, at least on this first DVD there were no special features or commentary.

The writers/producers took the formula that worked for Batman and applied it to The Flash, but here it just didn’t work. I remember thinking at the time the show originally aired that having stories take place primarily at night just didn’t seem to fit. I rented it with the idea of watching it with my daughter, but the pilot was so creepy that I’ve decided that she won’t be watching it. I also took a brief glance at the other two episodes on the first DVD and I won’t even bother watching those. I’m going to try the last DVD of the series to see if the mood of the show will have changed any between the start and end of the series, but I doubt it.

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Goyer doing “The Flash” next

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:15:59 +0000

From a number of unrelated news items last week I had already assumed Goyer was going to helm a movie about DC character “The Flash”, and it’s been confirmed that he’s going to write, produce, and direct. I hope the man isn’t biting off more than he can chew.

I read “The Flash” as a kid, and although his main claim to fame is that he can run really, REALLY fast, it was always a fun comic, and of course great at getting me to run down the street as fast as I could.

Goyer has stated in prior interviews that he would probably use the Wally West version of Flash as opposed to Barry Allen. This does however conflict with the following comment by Goyer:

“I think the character of the Flash, who moves faster than the speed of light, opens itself up to rich cinematic and story ideas.” [emphasis added]

According to the comics, Barry Allen was able to run at the speed of light, but Wally West can only move at the speed of sound. My guess is that Goyer will use the West character but impart him with Allen’s powers.

After the disappointment of Blade: Trinity, I’m holding my breath as far as any upcoming Goyer-involved properties. If Batman Begins turns out to be great I’ll just consider Blade III an anomaly.

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