The Flash Movie is Getting a Complete Rewrite, But Will We Ever See It?
Variety is reporting that The Flash, a film that has already gone through several directors, and an entire writers room's worth of re-writes, is getting a bottom-up script re-write that keeps nothing from the previous drafts (original article here). Funny, I always thought Aquaman would be the harder nut to crack
Warner Brothers is in a weird spot right now. They're three movies deep in their new DC comics cinematic universe (Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and Suicide Squad), and they already have two more in the can (Wonder Woman is only a few months out, and filming on Justice League wrapped back in October 2016). While all of the movies released so far have been relatively monetarily successful, the general consensus is that they were creatively disappointing. Honestly, the box office performance here is a bit of smoke and mirrors, since a movie featuring Batman and Superman for the first time should've easily raked in Avengers money, but it barely made it to X-Men money. Reportedly, BvS actually lost the studio money after deducting marketing costs and the film's gigantic budget. This is a concept that people have been anticipating for decades, so there is really no excuse for that kind of under-performance. Also, Suicide Squad was the new DCEU's biggest hit yet, but it still missed the mark for many fans, and I think that has to have Warners executives second-guessing their grand plan. Which is why I think they're dragging their feet on this Flash project.
Everything hinges on the success of Wonder Woman. If the Amazonian princess comes out and is well-received critically and commercially, then I guarantee both The Flash and Aquaman will find the quickest possible route out of development hell. If not, they'll languish there until the next reboot of the franchise. The new writer, Joby Harold, has one of the most thankless jobs in Hollywood. Even if the film gets made, his script will likely be workshopped into oblivion. He's essentially a human-shaped placeholder for whoever will eventually get credit. Don't feel too bad, though, because he's still getting paid. For me, I'm still not invested enough in this universe to muster up that much excitement either way. Hopefully, the next two films change my mind.
