As part of their plan to grow the DC Extended Universe, one of the many movies Warner Bros. had planned for 2018 was The Flash. Ezra Miller landed the superhero gig and already has made two cameo appearances in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. 2017 is looking to be a big year for the young Barry Allen as he joins up with more super powered people in Justice League, ahead of what was scheduled to be a starring role in his own film a few months later.
However, The Flash has had a rocky pre-production process that has kept it from getting off the ground. Most recently, the project lost its second director, Rick Famuyiwa, over creative differences with the studio. Since then, updates on the project have been scarce, with the occasional exception being cast members confirming their continued involved. Now, the project is making another major change, as the studio has hired a new screenwriter to handle rewrites.
As reported by Variety, Warners has hired Joby Harold to rewrite the script previously written by Famuyiwa and Seth Grahame-Smith, the film's first director. Harold's credits as a writer are slim with King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and the upcoming Robin Hood film being his two biggest credits, outside of Awake -- a 2007 film he both wrote and directed. At present, there is no word on the reasoning behind the script needing to be rewritten.
This is just the latest step back that the project has taken over the last year, making it increasingly difficult to imagine it coming out before 2019. Variety's article points to the script holding back the director's process, which now puts WB in a position where production can't begin until Miller finishes filming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2. At one point, Miller had stated that production was going to begin at the end of 2016, but that has clearly not happened.
With Harold being the third official writer to take a stab at the story (which was initially cracked by Phil Lord and Chris Miller), there could be an ever-changing mindset as to what The Flash should ultimately be. There is no doubt that the film will heavily focus on Barry Allen, but Famuyiwa's script also brought Cyborg into the film. However, that could be one of the creative differences that WB was not on board for.
How this project continues to develop is certainly something to keep an eye on moving forward. Once Harold's page one rewrite is complete, WB will then be able to begin approaching potential directors and finally move forward with production. The longer this pre-production takes, the longer it will be before Flash leads his own film, and with WB having many other projects in development, it could easily get lost in the shuffle.
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Source: Variety
