We all knew from the beginning that Warner Bros planned to use the Justice League of America movie to spin-off a few new DC superhero movie projects. Or at least that is the plan. Earlier this year, before all this JLA craziness, Night at the Museum helmer Shawn Levy signed on to make a movie based on The Flash. But Levy had to leave the project for undisclosed reasons. I mean, the guy has like seven other projects in development as a director (and a few others as producer), so it’s likely that time became an issue.
The big news tonight is that Wedding Crashers and Fred Claus director David Dobkin has signed on with Warner Bros to make the project. Dobkin told MTV that his Flash movie will be set in the same universe as the Justice League of America movie, and will follow the Wally West incarnation of the character. Both Wally West and Barry Allen are said to be heavily featured in the Justice League movie, which means that whomever signs on to play The Flash, is also gunning for this solo project. It should also be noted that Ryan Reynolds has publicly expressed interest in the role if the new script’s incarnation was Wally West.
This new bit also fits with rumors that the JLA film opens with the funeral of Barry Allen. Allen was the second Flash (1956-1986), preceding his nephew (by marriage) Wally West. The fact that Warner Bros has hired another director for the project before JLA goes into production, suggests to me that they want to strike quickly on a solo project, while the iron is hot. Asked about his vision for the Flash, Dobkin teased a somewhat melancholy tagline: “You can’t outrun yourself.”
But is the guy who made Wedding Crashers and Shanghai Knights the right guy to make this superhero movie? I’m still not sure George Miller is the right guy to make Justice League…
October 27th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
TERRIBLE NEWS. Did that guy really use the “outrun” yourself line? He should die while jogging. Peter, I don’t understand the wide skepticism over George Miller. He’s a very technical and colorful director, and very accomplished in a wide spectrum of genres. Say what you want about Happy Feet, the animation was flawless. Babe? Babe is a very well made family film that has a lot of value, and Babe 2 is just a weird beast all together. Mad Max? C’mon, that alone gives him credit to direct action, the others speak for the CGI.
Back to the Flash, this has me worried. It definitely gives a heads up as to what the tone of JLA will be if a comedy director is doing the first satellite film. This guy is a freaking hack. Fred Claus looks terrrrible. I dunno. I’m not the biggest fan of David Goyer but I wanted to see his ideas for his Flash film, which he always teases are beyond Superman/Batman et al.
Sounds like they’re going for PG. Worked for Fantastic 4.
October 28th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
So the reason we can’t get Bale or Welling or even Routh was because every director deserves their own “vision” and new actors to go along with it. But Flash will be made with Miller’s sloppy seconds?
I call BULLSHIT. Warners is just too cheap to pay Bale or Welling multi pic deals.
October 28th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
You expected a Justice League pic to be anything but a bastardized version of the other flicks? Dream on.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I’m on the verge of just giving up thinking about ALL these films (although I know I’ll fail), the ‘creative teams’, the casting of the /very young/, the ’strike while the iron is hot’ mentality…and the strike, the ‘vision’…it all makes for very bad vibes…
comics have ALWAYS suffered in translation to the big screen for one funamental reason: studios are full of people who don’t know anything about comics.
the average age of a comic book reader is ~25, not 12.
and the average movie viewer is, I think, also about 25 (I can’t find much to support this but I think it’s about right)
this is why we get such bad films, they are compromised right from the start…comics, these days, at least the good ones, are not PG or even PG-13…
we’ll never see a Miricleman movie…never see a /real/ Constantine movie…it’s just the OC with powers…
oh and speaking of Powers…can any of you imagine a ‘Powers’ movie? - it’ll never happen.
October 30th, 2007 at 6:24 am
I hear ya goldfarb. I guess they figured this guy made one movie about a guy in a red suit,and that he may as well do another. if wally is Flash in the Flash film,then barry had better get LOTS and LOTS of screentime in JLA. He’s just all around the best Flash IMO. remember,the guy that’s directing iron man made Elf,and IM looks awesome,so maybe this film has some hope after all.