The DC Extended Universe’s Flash movie has finally found its directors! …Again! At least according to Variety, which reports that the team of John M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley have been chosen to direct the film, which is now titled Flashpoint.
These two are frequent collaborators who have several writing and directing credits to their names, and perhaps most notably were the main writers for the screenplay of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Given that Justice League characterized the Flash (Barry Allen, played by Ezra Miller) as an inexperienced, awkward science geek, this makes some sense, since that is more or less the personality given to the MCU version of Peter Parker.
Already this movie has had a very troubled production. It was actually slated to begin production in January 2017 for a release in March of this year, but has been delayed after going through numerous directors and rewrites.
First, a script was made by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind The Lego Movie; Seth Grahame-Smith was hired to direct, but left the project due to creative differences. Then, Rick Famuyiwa, the director of Dope, was hired to replace him, but also left, citing the same thing. Then the Lord/Miller script was rewritten by Joby Harold, who also wrote Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (which was… not well received) and a yet-unreleased King Arthur movie. During this period various directors were approached, and at one point rumors said that Greg Berlanti of The Flash TV show would take over, but it has instead been left director-less for about a year.
Flashpoint will presumably be based on the comic book event of the same name. In that story, Barry Allen goes back in time to try and prevent the death of his mother, who was murdered when he was a child. He succeeds, but his actions break the timeline, leading to an alternate reality where, among other things, a huge war between Wonder Woman’s Amazons and Aquaman’s Atlanteans has left the world on the brink of destruction.
Will this film finally be made? For now fans will just have to sit back and hope that these two actually stay in the director’s chair.
