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‘Vacation’ Directors Take Over DC’s ‘Flashpoint’

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein also co-wrote ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming.’
The Flash In Justice League
By  · Published on January 17th, 2018

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein also co-wrote ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming.’

The Flash standalone film has had a tortured history. Initial plans had its release date aimed at 2018, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller tapped to write a story treatment and possibly direct. The duo left the project to work on Disney and Lucasfilm’s Han Solo movie, and Warner Bros. moved on to screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) in late 2015. Then a classic case of “creative differences” eliminated Grahame-Smith in early 2016, and Rick Famuyiwa (Dope) was on board within two months, only to be taken out by the same malady by the end of the year.

Now Variety is reporting that more than a year and one Justice League later, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Vacation) are in negotiations to take over The Flash — recently retitled Flashpoint — with star Ezra Miller still attached to reprise his role as the speedy superhero.

This won’t be Daley and Goldstein’s first rodeo in the superhero arena. They co-wrote last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sony’s successful MCU-infused reboot, alongside four other credited names. They won’t be writing Flashpoint, though, as King Arthur: Legend of the Sword scribe Joby Harold is currently hard at work on a complete rewrite of the script that Lord and Miller and Grahame-Smith tried their hands at. Variety‘s story reveals the studio initially approached Ben Affleck to take the helm of the project, but he declined. It is still unclear if he’ll be returning for Matt Reeves’s in-development The Batman.

In the wake of Justice League‘s colossal underperformance, Warner Bros. has been reshuffling the command crew on the DC Extended Universe battleship, with new producer Michael De Luca coming on board for Suicide Squad 2 and Walter Hamada, the man behind the runaway smash hit It, taking over as head of DC Films from Geoff Johns.

Flashpoint is expected to be a Captain America: Civil War-esque reunion of the studio’s flagship team. More than half of the Justice League (Ray Fisher‘s Cyborg, Affleck’s Batman, and Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman) is rumored to return, with Affleck possibly making this his Batsuited curtain call. In the comics, Flashpoint is a universe-altering event, one that the DCEU could easily use to reshuffle departing cast members and solidify the line-up of their team.

The next film officially confirmed on DC’s slate is Aquaman, which hits theaters on December 21st. That will be followed by Shazam! and Wonder Woman 2 in 2019 and Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps in 2020. Flashpoint currently has no release date, but Daley and Goldstein’s next film as directors, Game Night, will be released on February 23rd for anyone interested in seeing more of what they’ve got.

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Writer and student based in New York. Ask me about my Blu-Ray copy of The Book of Henry.