Joby Harold To Do Page-One Rewrites For The Flash

After losing two directors and on the search for their third, Warner Bros have hired Joby Harold to a full page one script rewrite for The Flash.

The film has been on hold since Rick Famuyiwa departed the project late last year after replacing the original director Seth Grahame-Smith last spring. While WB looks to find Famuyiwa’s replacement they’ll spend the time taking the script in a different direction.

IMAGE VIA WARNER BROS

According to Variety, studio executives have been taking their time finding their third director. With Ezra Miller, playing the speedster superhero Barry Allen, preparing to shoot Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 and they decided to work on a new script in the meantime.

Famuyiwa had been writing the recent draft with Variety sources said the original reason for his departure was to do with executives disagreeing with where he was taking the script. Grahame-Smith had also written a previous draft from a treatment by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Kiersey Clemons attached to play Iris West, while Billy Crudup will play Miller’s father Henry Allen.

This is likely the first time you’ve ever heard of Harold, but he’s written the script for the upcoming King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. He’s developing two other projects, a new Robin Hood film for Lionsgate and a Warner Bros Twilight Zone film.

With Miller commenting to shot the Fantastic Beasts sequel, The Flash will now be delayed and won’t be possible hitting the March 2018 release date unless they rush and Warner Bros won’t be risking the negative press and quality of the film and their overall DCU plans to rush finding a new director.

However, I do think this is a smart move for WB because with three different drafts of the script it makes perfect sense to make a fresh start and have a concrete story by Harold with help from DC Films co-chief Geoff Johns.

Previous drafts (especially Famuyiwa’s) had Cyborg (Ray Fisher) has a co-star with the buddy team-up. Personally, I’d like to have this film to be just a Flash solo mission taking out the Rogues and have Cyborg as a supporting role/cameo. If they do turn Cyborg solo film into a Teen Titans movie then use this young superhero hint/introduce us to other young superheroes like Nightwing for a future film.

JUST NO ORIGIN STORY!! It’s been covered in the TV show, if they want to introduce wider audiences to his origins hopefully it’ll be covered briefly in Justice League and have Barry having nightmare flashbacks to set up a sequel with Reverse Flash.

If they find a director later on in the year, 2019 could be a fantastic year for WB/DC. The Flash could start the year coming out around February/March; in the summer could be the perfect time to release Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam film or The Batman, then either of Black Adam/The Batman to be released in October.

Green Lantern Corps could also have a 2019 release now they have script writers.

I expect this year’s Comic Con could be the year for DC Films with the announcements for Green Lantern Corps and The Flash directors, Man of Steel 2 to be confirmed, Ben Affleck’s Batman for have an official title (it's The Batman) and casting news, meet the cast of Gotham City Sirens, GLC casting and defiantly the official Justice League trailer.