Variety profiles series producer Greg Berlanti with a cover featuring two signature DC Comics heroes. This may be the closest we’ll see the two characters for a while, though, as CBS currently plans to keep Supergirl separate for now.
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, LACMA is hosting an event with Greg Berlanti about Arrow and The Flash next Wednesday, November 12 at 7:30pm.
Berlanti will sit for a conversation after a viewing of “Going Rogue,” an episode from The Flash featuring the introduction to one of the best known villains from Flash’s Rogues Gallery, and will also present sneak preview clips from upcoming episodes of Arrow and The Flash.
General admission is $25, but here’s the cool thing: Film Independent (one of the organizations co-hosting the event) is offering up to 10 tickets to Speed Force readers!
Simply send your name to lacma-event at speedforce.org before Friday morning at 9:00 PST and I’ll pass it along to Film Independent. First come, first served.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter confirms a Flash series is in development, with plans to introduce Barry Allen as a recurring character on Arrow this season. (via Newsarama)
“We plan to introduce the recurring character of Barry Allen who is the Flash,” [CW president Mark] Pedowitz told reporters. “We’re planning an origin story and we’ll see how it goes. We do want to expand on DC Universe, and we felt this is a very organic way to get there.”
The Flash origin episode in Arrow, written by Berlanti, Kreisberg and Johns as stated below, will be treated as a back-door pilot for a potential Flash series.
In a way, this is better than a purely Flash pilot: As an episode of Arrow, we’ll get to see it even if The Flash isn’t picked up as a series.
As for that Flash movie, Pedowitz didn’t mention any dates, but he did say there is “no conflict” between the movie studio and TV studio’s plans. THR states that “Berlanti will direct and pen the screenplay alongside Chris Brancato, Michael Green, Johns and Guggenheim.” Newsarama speculates that the “no conflict” remark and the creative team overlap might imply a connection between the TV world of Arrow and The Flash and DC’s slowly-developing movie universe.
UPDATE 2: IGN has a little background on how Flash ended up on Arrow.
Also, the op/ed pieces are starting to flow. Newsarama suggests that Flash should bridge the TV and movie universes, linking Arrow to Man of Steel, Superman/Batman and Justice League. The Mary Sue discusses the missed opportunity of Amazon, which has been put on hold at the same time. Forbes looks at the TV/movie decision (as well as the Flash/Wonder Woman decision) from a business and branding perspective.
UPDATE 3: More information has surfaced in a second Hollywood Reporter article. Barry Allen will appear in episodes 8, 9 and 20 of Arrow season 2, each of which will be written by Berlanti, Kreisberg and Johns, and directed by David Nutter. Episode 20 will be the backdoor pilot for The Flash.
“When we first meet Barry Allen, he’s just a forensic scientist … an ordinary man,” Kreisberg said, stressing the character, like Amell’s vigilante, will be grounded in reality and as realistic as possible. The first two episodes will see the character in Oliver’s home of Starling City, with the 20th providing a window to see Barry in the Flash’s world.
They note that adding superpowers to the mix changes the situation for Arrow, saying that “There will be extraordinary events in the world…” They’ll also be highlighting the contrast between the upbeat Barry Allen and the more serious Oliver Queen.
And finally:
Johns reiterated that the Justice League member will be seen as the Flash — complete with his trademark red costume and not a poor imitation. Added Kreisberg: “No sweat suits or strange code names; he will be The Flash.”
Casting has begun for the role.
Original Story:
Surprise! According to Deadline, CW will discuss plans for a Flash TV series today, possibly spinning off from a guest spot on Arrow. (via CBR.)
The pilot will reportedly be written by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg (Arrow), and Geoff Johns, who I imagine needs no introduction to readers of this site.
Now, keep in mind this is still rumor — just last week, The Hollywood Reporter stated that DC was going to announce a Flash and Justice League movie at Comic-Con to follow Batman/Superman, but that announcement never happened.
It’s possible, though, that THR had their wires crossed, or that DC Entertainment’s plans were in flux, and the reason that the Flash movie wasn’t announced is that it was really a Flash TV show.
Of course, even if it is true, lots of pilots don’t get picked up as series.
Depending on how you count Smallville’s Bart Allen (he was originally billed as The Flash, but when he actually took a code name it was Impulse) or Jay Garrick’s helmet, it’s been 23 years since the Flash appeared in an official live-action production, the 1990 Flash TV series starring John Wesley Shipp.
More on this story as it develops.
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!)
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!)
At Comic-Con International, Geoff Johns wouldn’t say anything more about the in-production Flash movie than “We’re making one.” It turns out that’s because there just isn’t much news to reveal. In an interview with Collider.com, Greg Berlanti mentioned that they’re “just starting the script.”
I guess that answers the question of whether any of Dan Mazeau’s script was still in play.
The bulk of the interview is about Berlanti’s super-hero family drama, No Ordinary Family, which launches on ABC next month, but he touches on the Green Lantern film as well.
Link spotted on the Comic Bloc forums.