Third time's the charm?
Variety has reported that Warner Bros. is in negotiations with directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to helm the DC Extended Universe film Flashpoint, the Flash solo movie starring Ezra Miller based on the DC Comics limited series.
Daley, 32, is known as playing Sam Weir on the NBC dramedy Freaks and Geeks and as Dr. Lance Sweets on the Fox series Bones. With Goldstein, he co-wrote last year's Spider-Man: Homecoming, Horrible Bosses 2, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatlballs 2. The two also co-wrote and co-directed the 2015 Vacation remake, and co-directed the upcoming movie Game Night.
According to the article, Warner Bros. attempted to bring in Miller's Justice League co-star Ben Affleck to direct, but he passed on the project. Flashpoint's previous director Rick Famuyiwa left the project in October 2016, citing "creative differences" as the reason. Famuyiwa had replaced Seth Grahame-Smith, who also left the project in April 2016 and also cited "creative differences" as his reason.
In addition, Warner Bros. decided to take the Flashpoint script in a different direction, with Joby Harold turning in a new draft after a page-one rewrite. Reportedly, the studio took its time finding a new director because Miller is about to shoot Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the second film in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Earlier this month, Warner Bros.' promoted Walter Hamada to oversee DC-based film production.
The five-issue limited series Flashpoint was released in 2011, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Andy Kubert. In the series, Barry Allen wakes up to discover everything and everyone around him has changed. He's not the Flash, nor does he have powers, his mother Nora Allen (deceased in his own timeline) is alive, while his father, Henry Allen, died of a heart attack three years ago. Captain Cold is Central City's greatest hero, the Justice League is never established, and even Superman is seemingly nonexistent.
Barry Allen drives to the Batcave, where Batman attacks him. Batman is revealed to be Thomas Wayne, who in this timeline, lost his son, Bruce, along with his wife. At Wayne Manor, Barry tries to explain to Thomas about his secret identity as the Flash and his relationship to Bruce Wayne. Barry's memory begins to spontaneously realign itself to the altered timeline and Barry realizes that the world of Flashpoint is not a parallel dimension, but an alternate reality. Barry's ring ejects Eobard Thawne's Reverse-Flash costume and causes Barry to believe that his enemy is responsible for changing history. Barry decides to recreate the accident that gave him his powers in a bid to undo the damage caused by Thawne, but his initial attempt fails and leaves him badly burned.
A second attempt at recreating Allen's accident restores his powers and health. He concludes that the Reverse-Flash changed history to prevent the formation of the Justice League. He also learns that Kal-El was taken by Project: Superman. Flash, Batman and Cyborg join the cause to stop Wonder Woman and Aquaman, who are on opposite sides of the Atlantean-Amazon war. The Marvel Family transform into Captain Thunder, also transforming Tawky Tawny. Captain Thunder attacks Wonder Woman and appears to be winning until Enchantress reveals herself as the Amazon spy in the Resistance and uses her magic to restore the Marvel Family to their mortal forms. Penthesilea (who was secretly one of the conspirators of the Atlanteans-Amazons war, along with Orm) kills Billy Batson, causing a massive explosion that cripples the opposing forces.
In the wake of the devastation, Thawne appears in front of the Flash. The Reverse-Flash reveals that Flash himself created the Flashpoint timeline by traveling back in time to stop him from killing Barry's mother. Barry pulled the entire Speed Force into himself to stop Thawne, transforming the timeline by shattering the history of his allies. Thawne resets Barry's internal vibrations, enabling him to remember this. According to Thawne, these actions transformed him into a living paradox, no longer requiring Barry to exist and allowing him to kill the Flash without erasing his own existence. Thawne continues to taunt Barry with this knowledge until Batman kills him with an Amazonian sword. Thomas insists that Barry puts history back to normal to undo the millions of deaths. Now knowing the point of divergence, the Flash restores the timeline. As he enters the timestream, a dying Thomas thanks him for giving his son a second chance and gives Barry a letter addressed to Bruce. Barry then meets with his mother and bids a tearful farewell to her.
Traveling back in time, Barry merges with his earlier self during the attempt to stop Thawne. While traveling through time, Barry realizes he can see three different timelines — DC (New Earth), Vertigo (Earth-13), and WildStorm (Earth-50). A mysterious hooded figure (later revealed to be a cursed immortal Pandora) tells him that the world was split into three to weaken them for an impending threat, and must now be reunited to combat it. The DC, Vertigo, and Wildstorm universes are then merged, creating a brand new DC Universe. Barry then wakes up in a similar manner to the beginning of Flashpoint, also retaining all his memories from the alternate timeline. Believing that everything is over, Barry remembers Thomas' letter and gives it to Bruce, who is still the Batman in this timeline. Bruce, deeply touched by his father's sacrifice to ensure his son's life, cries and expresses his gratitude to Barry for informing him of the events that transpired before the timeline was reset.
This will be the third time Flashpoint has been adapted, after the 2013 animated film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and the Season 2 finale and Season 3 of The CW series The Flash.
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