UPDATE: According to EW, Raimi has passed on The Flash, as has fellow Spidey director Marc Webb.
Three weeks ago, it was revealed that Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) had taken meetings with Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment about the possibility of taking on the director’s chair for The Flash. Yesterday this was reiterated and two other names were added to the list. According to and Variety, those two are Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) and Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class).
WB and DC had originally hoped to begin production on The Flash after star Ezra Miller finishes up shooting Fantastic Beasts 2 this summer. Whether or not they will achieve that goal now is uncertain. It seems that their search for a new director has gone on longer than expected, in the wake of loosing both Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa.
The studio has been aiming more for name directors lately, scooping up Matt Reeves for The Batman and Joss Whedon for a Batgirl film. Robert Zemeckis, Sam Raimi, and Matthew Vaughn are all impressive choices for The Flash, but any one of them could come at a price. That price is another production delay.
Zemeckis is currently prepping The Women of Marwen, an adaptation of the Marwencol tale with Steve Carell in the lead. It is expected to film later this year. Should that happen, Zemeckis would not be available to lens on The Flash until at least early 2018, setting the film up for a 2019 release.
Things aren’t much different with Vaughn and Raimi. The former is already being courted by Fox to direct a third Kingsman film for them. The latter is less locked in, but still has an assortment of developing projects to choose from. Bottom line? It sounds like no matter who they select, WB might have to wait until early 2018 to begin production on their solo Flash film.
