THE FLASH: 5 Directors WB Should Target

With Seth Grahame-Smith departing WB's Flash movie over creative differences, the studio has to move quickly in finding a replacement in order to maintain the aggressive schedule of the DC Film Universe.

By MarkJulian - May 05, 2016 10:05 AM EST

Filed Under: The Flash

Last week, news broke that Seth Grahame-Smith had departed Warner Bros.' standalone Flash movie over creative differences. With Warner Bros. already heavily invested in an incredibly ambitious superhero slate, a replacement for Smith will need to be found rather quickly.

Ezra Miller's Flash already made a cameo appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and will have a bigger role in Zack Snyder's Justice League: Part One. With WB shaping its cinematic universe around individual director vision instead of a singular, consistent vision (like Marvel Studios) the search for a new director could run into a few snags.

Given previous statements that Snyder and WB are working with other directors to ensure character depictions are consistent across the entire DCEU slate, decisions on how The Flash is depicted in Justice League may have been based on what Grahame-Smith had planned for the character. Does this mean that the new director will be locked into exploring the same material that Grahame-Smith already approved for Justice League?

With the solo Flash movie set for release on March 16, 2018, filming will likely need to commence fairly soon after Snyder wraps Justice League in order to keep its current release date. With that in mind, here are 5 director candidates that would bring excitement to the fan base and capture interest from the general audience.

EDGAR WRIGHT

Ironic, right? Wright found himself in an eerily similar position on the Ant-Man movie. After departing the project that he'd been developing the project for the better part of a decade but the singular, consistent vision of the Marvel Cinematic Universe no longer coincided with what Wright wanted to accomplish.

Being replaced by Peyton Reed and watching someone else carry out his passion project had to be somewhat bitter, to say the least. Wright could certainly get a little retribution by helping out the competition in their time of need.

Having most recently directed the critically-acclaimed indie hit, Dope, Famuyiwa is a Hollywood veteran with a deft hand for balancing romance, comedy and self discovery. All critical elements necessary for a successful Flash feature film.

Dope was a big departure from Famuyiwa's previous works such as Brown Sugar and Our Family Wedding. The Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave Dope three out of four stars. "Famuyiwa keeps the action spinning with vibrant speed and rare sensitivity. He's made a comedy of social expectation that plays like an exhilarating gift." If Famuyiwa wants to continue exploring new genres, perhaps the next step is helming a big budget blockbuster?

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ALFONSO GOMEZ-REJON

Gomez-Rejon directed another critically-acclaimed 2015 indie hit, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl. The movie took home the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He started his career as a personal assistant to Martin Scorsese and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Their sensibilities are evident in Rejon's directorial style as he worked his way up to second-unit director, before striking out on his own.

In Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, Rejon proved he could take the best elements of a work of fiction (Jesse Andrews wrote the 2012 novel of the same name) and add his own unique vision to create something special. With multiple Flashes and 76 years of stories to pore over, the ability to pick and choose what to cultivate and what to abandon will be critical.

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ALEX GARLAND

For many, Ex Machina was the best film of 2015. Garland wrote and directed the feature, displaying incredibly strong storytelling chops. The movie showed Garland's remarkable growth since 2012's Dredd, a comic book adaptation which was criminally under marketed.

Garland's next feature is a big budget, sci-fi adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel, Annihilation. In addition as serving as the perfect stepping stone, Annihilation would should theoretically wrap just in time for Garland to board The Flash. A successful Flash movie would be poetic justice for Garland after the box office failure of Dredd.

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DENIS VILLENEUVE

Denis Villeneuve was an award-winning director in his native country of Canada for years before landing his big Hollywood break with 2012's Prisoners,a film which starred Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis. That project paved the way for 2015's Sicario and quickly catapulted Villeneuve up the list of most sought after directors. Case in point, he's in line to direct the Blade Runner sequel starring Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright and Dave Bautista.

If WB wants to add some depth and forego a purely popcorn route, Villeneuve would be an outstanding choice. His films are full of tension and energy, without having huge explosions and massive SFX. Imagine taking what Christopher Nolan did for Batman and applying it to the Scarlet Speedster and that's what a Denis Villeneuve -directed Flash movie could look like.

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Who do you want to see direct The Flash? Sound off in the comment section below and let us know if you agree with our choices or if you have your own picks!

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193 Comments

1 2 3 4 5

slickrickdesigns - 5/5/2016, 10:41 AM

I hate that look... Give Rights Back to CW.

BlackIceJoe - 5/5/2016, 10:42 AM

Is that you Josh?

DarkArrow19 - 5/5/2016, 10:43 AM

I don't even know if this movie will actually get made. Knowing WB, they'll probably just keep having justice league movies made to keep ppl interested. Regardless I'll still go see it of course.

Gilly200e - 5/5/2016, 10:43 AM

Get Lord and Miller back off that dying franchise to do their script justice

MattBellissimo - 5/5/2016, 10:44 AM

I just hope that rumour of Thawne being confined to a wheelchair is false.

Make your own path, WB!

DarkArrow19 - 5/5/2016, 10:46 AM

@MattBellissimo - I hope all those rumors are false. They need to separate themselves from the tv show in a good way. We can only hope for the best.

TheEpicJuicebox - 5/5/2016, 10:45 AM

Mathew Vaughn

TheEpicJuicebox - 5/5/2016, 10:48 AM

@TheEpicJuicebox - heck I bet Christopher Nolan could do an awesome flash movie just look at interstellar and how he portrayed metaphysics

BloodyBed - 5/5/2016, 10:59 AM

@TheEpicJuicebox - not a bad idea, i bet something like flash might bring him back to dc.

MiopTop - 5/5/2016, 11:02 AM

@TheEpicJuicebox - You mean in a way that doesn't make sense ? Also, that was not metaphysics, like, not even close.

1 2 3 4 5

THE FLASH: 5 Directors WB Should Target

With Seth Grahame-Smith departing WB's Flash movie over creative differences, the studio has to move quickly in finding a replacement in order to maintain the aggressive schedule of the DC Film Universe.

EDGAR WRIGHT

RICK FAMUYIWA

ALFONSO GOMEZ-REJON

ALEX GARLAND

DENIS VILLENEUVE

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