Why The New Flash Directors Are Excited About Tackling Flashpoint

Flash Justice League Ezra Miller

The developing DC Extended Universe Flash movie has had a rough go of it in development thus far, but it gained new life just a few weeks ago. While a deal hasn't fully gone through yet, it's been reported that Spider-Man: Homecoming scribes John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are now in talks to helm -- and as I recently learned from the duo, one thing that greatly excites about the project is just being able to leave their specific stamp on it even more so than they did with the Marvel feature. Said the filmmakers,

Jonathan Goldstein: It's really early days for us. We're still kind of making a deal. But we're super excited just to be able to hopefully have this opportunity. Love the character - it would be a blast to get in there.John Francis Daley: And just to be able to put our stamp on the superhero movie more than we did on Spider-Man[: Homecoming] even, because we were just writers on that. Just to see a film like that to its end is really, really cool. So we're super excited about it.

The end of this month will see the release of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein's new comedy Game Night, and it was during the Los Angeles press day for the film this past weekend that I had the chance to sit down with the filmmakers. At the end of my interview I took the opportunity to inquire about the future and their involvement in making Flashpoint -- specifically asking how, as more comedy-centric filmmakers, they were looking to handle the more dramatic aspects of the DC Comics arc. As you can see, they couldn't really speak to the tone because the project is still in early days, but they did express one element that has them anticipating making the blockbuster.

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have been working together since 2011 when they collaborated on the script for the hit comedy Horrible Bosses (which also began their relationship with Warner Bros.). They spent years solely focused in the writing realm of the industry - scripting films like The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 - but in 2015 they changed gears when they directed the Vacation reboot. Game Night, which is actually based on a script they didn't write, is their second directorial effort, and Warner Bros. evidently now trusts them enough to give them one of their biggest upcoming projects. They certainly helped make Spider-Man: Homecoming one of the best comic book movies of 2017, so there's confidence they can come up with something special for Flashpoint.

Because of the aforementioned development issues, Warner Bros. has not yet chosen a specific release date for the Flash solo feature -- though at the very least Justice League's Ezra Miller and Billy Crudup are expected to reprise their roles as Barry and Henry Allen, respectively. We'll continue to keep a close eye on Flashpoint as it continues to make its way through development, and be sure to be on the lookout for more from my interviews with the cast and filmmakers behind Game Night, which arrives in theaters February 23rd.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.