March 29, 2012
Normally I wouldn’t bother reporting non-news, but it’s been a while since we heard anything about Warner Bros. plans for a big-screen Flash movie. Blastr recently talked to Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans), who told them that despite Green Lantern’s disappointing performance, DC is still planning to move ahead with more super-hero films outside the Superman/Batman worlds, and “The Flash is very high on the list.”
“It’s like anything, though,” he continued. “It has to come together with the right cast. It has to come together with the right director and sort of the right moment, and so they’re trying to push the rock up the hill … hopefully there will be some news soon, but right now I can’t really say anything else.”
The Flash has been in development hell for years, having first been announced way back in 2004 as a David Goyer film. Writers and directors have come and gone, the tone has gone from dark to light and back, and even the starring character has changed. Goyer’s script included both Barry Allen and Wally West, Mazeau’s featured Barry with nods to Wally fans, and the latest version, written by the Green Lantern screenwriting team, is entirely Barry Allen. You can read the whole sordid history over at Flash: Ride the Lightning.
(Via The Comic Reel at CBR)
February 7, 2011
Nothing really new in this interview at SciFiNow, though the writer does talk about the athleticism inherent in a film about a hero who runs really fast, and the approach to the character.
The Flash – to me – is about pure expression. Flash is untethered to the limitations of time and space – he can be everywhere at once and with that, I think, comes a certain freedom. Who hasn’t wanted to be faster? To get someplace quicker?
Interestingly, that reminds me of something Mark Waid has said about the appeal of the Flash. “No one gets up in the moming and says, ‘Gee, I wish I could throw power blasts out of my hands.’ However, everybody in the world knows what it’s like to miss the bus.”
As for getting people to look past “He runs fast,” Guggenheim explains:
Well, it’s all about who the character – in this case, Barry Allen – is before he gets his powers. We spent a lot of time talking about who Barry is and, specifically, why he’s the kind of guy we want to see get these powers bestowed on him. What’s missing in his life? What problems does he have? What personal foibles? And how are all those things impacted by the ability to run fast?
I’ll admit, this sounds a lot more appropriate for the Flash than taking inspiration from Se7en and Silence of the Lambs.
Head over to SciFiNow to read the whole interview.
December 22, 2010
Today’s guest post is by Kojo Manu
It’s no secret that Warner Bros. and DC Comics have started, stalled, restarted, and once again stalled many of their film properties in the past, but it doesn’t stop the speculation. One property that I always wanted to see brought to the big screen (and love to speculate about) is The Flash.
Unfortunately (sort of) it seems that DC is focusing more on bringing Barry Allen rather than Wally West to the screen first. but it’s still fun the speculate on my favorite person to don the Flash costume.
I decided to make a blog casting the Scarlet Speedster and to hear many other people’s opinion on who should Wally West/The Flash. Here are my top 3 choices: Read the rest of this entry »
December 7, 2010
Newsarama is running a series of interviews on the theme, “Geoff Johns Still Writes Comics.” today’s installment focuses on his work on The Flash. As usual, he drops a few hints, but remains mostly cagey about the details. He does make the interesting point that while he’s trying to build up the Flash universe (similar to his success with Green Lantern), he’s not trying to build it up in the same way. “Flashpoint is nothing like any of the Green Lantern events. It’s not a Flash army vs. a Reverse-Flash army.”
Also of note: IESB reports that the movies Green Lantern 2 and The Flash are planned for Summer 2013.
December 2, 2010
Today’s guest post is by Dave Huang.
One of Flash franchise’s greatest strengths is the diversity of the Rogues. That strength, however, may prove a challenge when being modernized or adapted to film. Whether or not combining origins is a good thing, it certainly is a trend. Every Superman film has presented a Kryptonian threat (kryptonite, phantom zone criminals, synthetic kryptonite, synthetic kryptonian, kryptonian crystals). In Batman Begins, Scarecrow’s formula, Falcone’s involvement, the main threat, and Bruce’s training all trace back to Ra’s. In The Dark Knight, Batman’s escalation begets Joker who begets Two-Face. In updating Spider-Man, radioactivity is discarded in favor of genetics with organic webshooters (one origin for all powers). The list goes on….
How then does one adapt a speedster with enemies from the far future, prehistoric past, and all manner of scientific disciplines?
If past is prologue, one starts with the hero’s origin. The origin of The Flash is a little thematically weak. It’s an accident without purpose or meaning which grants neither chemical nor electrical powers and is unrelated to speed. Random electrified chemicals aren’t enough to rationalize all of Flash’s physics defying feats even in the comics, hence the Speed Force. However, the Speed Force is a little esoteric and geared at the comic book literate, for an adaptation you need something better grasped by general audience. My suggestion?
FTL. Read the rest of this entry »
October 25, 2010
Marc Guggenheim spoke to Newsarama about the planned Flash movie. Screen Rant has transcribed bits from the video clip.
Highlights:
- He describes it as a hybrid CSI thriller/superhero/sports movie (based on the athleticism of the character).
- They’re drawing from Geoff Johns’ run, Mark Waid’s philosophy of speed, and the Silver Age. In particular:
We’ve also tried to take our inspiration from the old Silver Age Barry Allen stories and imbue it with that sense of fun and wonder while still keeping that cool, slightly darker tone.”
- Guggenheim keeps suggesting cameos from elsewhere in the DCU, but those decisions would be made way above his level.
October 11, 2010
Deadline Hollywood’s Nikki Finke reports that the first drafts of the scripts for The Flash and Green Lantern 2 will be turned in “between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim are writing the script for The Flash based on the story they wrote with Greg Berlanti. I’ve lost track of where Geoff Johns is in all this. At one point he’d written a story treatment that Dan Mazeau was turning into a screenplay, but that version of the movie seems to have been scrapped in favor of the GL trio.
Greg Berlanti has been rumored as a likely director, but Finke’s source thinks it’s unlikely, saying that Berlanti “wants to do something in between [Life As We Know It and The Flash] size-wise first before attempting something that large”
Update: Moviehole reports a rumor that Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) is a leading candidate for the role.
(Hat tip to @SpeedsterSite for spotting the news!)
October 3, 2010
Some linkblogging for the weekend.
September 25, 2010
Greg Berlanti recently spoke to SuperHeroHype about the upcoming Flash movie. Berlanti co-wrote the treatment with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green, and it appears that Guggenheim and Green are working on the script.
He describes the tone as “somewhere in between GL and Dark Knight,” and goes on to explain how the CSI aspect of Barry Allen’s character is shaping their approach to the film.
It’s actually a little bit darker than when we were working on (‘GL’), because you’re dealing with somebody who is already a crimefighter in a world of those kinds of criminals and that kind of murder and homicide. I find you talk a lot about different films when you’re working on a film, and we spend a lot more time talking about Se7en or The Silence of the Lambs as we construct that part of Barry’s world, then I thought when we got into it. It helps balance a guy in a red suit who runs really fast.
He also talks about the possibility of dealing with alternate dimensions, fitting the sci-fi and crime parts of the concept together, and taking a “visceral and real and cool” approach to the sci-fi aspects, “more in the tone of The Matrix.”
I don’t know…I appreciate that they’re taking the character seriously and not turning it into a comedy, the way it sounded like Warner Bros. wanted to do when they had Shawn Levy and David Dobkin attached…but at the same time, I’m not sure that Se7en and Silence of the Lambs are the best source of inspiration for a character who is, fundamentally, about speed. I guess it’ll depend on how well they manage to balance things. (Assuming, of course, that this version of the film doesn’t go the way of the Goyer, Levy, Dobkin and Mazaeu versions.)
Read the full interview (well, the Flash parts, anyway, since they’re holding the complete interview until October) at SuperHeroHype.
(Hat tip to Andrew Filipe for sending me the link!)
Update: Berlanti also talks to HeroPlex about the films, adding a few notes about the speed element.
The character, like Hal, I think it’s his time. I feel like in this environment we’re in now, our society is moving quicker and quicker. There are all these ways to connect; there’s an element of our society that feels like it’s on speed, for lack of a better word. There’s something very timely about the story of the Flash at this moment, Barry Allen’s story.
(Hat tip to SpeedsterSite for pointing to the second interview!)
September 7, 2010
Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviews Marc Guggenheim about the Green Lantern and Flash movies. Readers of this blog will no doubt appreciate his first quote:
“We’ve turned in the treatment for Flash.”
Next up: the script. “It’s very much one step at a time for The Flash.”
Since Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and Michael Green are also working on the story for Green Lantern 2, Rogers asked him about possible Flash sequels. They’re not planning one at this stage, but they are open to it.
Guggenheim will be covering two other speedsters while The Flash is in development. He takes over Justice Society of America with issue #44 (scheduled for October), where he’ll write the original Flash, Jay Garrick. He’s also a consulting producer on Berlanti’s TV show No Ordinary Family, which features a speedster played by Julie Benz (Dexter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and premieres on September 28.
Normally I wouldn’t bother reporting non-news, but it’s been a while since we heard anything about Warner Bros. plans for a big-screen Flash movie. Blastr recently talked to Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans), who told them that despite Green Lantern’s disappointing performance, DC is still planning to move ahead with more super-hero films outside the Superman/Batman worlds, and “The Flash is very high on the list.”
