New Flash Movie To Be Like Silence Of The Lambs & Seven And Other Horrible News
Greg Berlanti, the man who shot to fame because he decided that Joey should kiss Pacey on Dawson's Creek, is one of the writers of the forthcoming Green Lantern movie and is also putting together the story for its sequel and for the new Flash movie. But based on his ideas for them, I'm not sure he's really read the comic books in question.
Speaking to Superhero Hype, Berlanti talked about his vision for both heroes:
Green Lantern is always a bit lighter than that on earth but mixed with a twinge of the space opera, which has its own epic qualities to it. Flash as we're getting into it is interesting, too. Though Barry Allen was a little lighter in the comic, I think because of the nature that he was a CSI and moved in this world of crime before this stuff happened. I think it's tonally somewhere in between GL and Dark Knight. It's actually a little bit darker than when we were working on Green Lantern, because you're dealing with somebody who is already a crimefighter in a world of those kinds of criminals and that kind of murder and homicide. I find you talk a lot about different films when you're working on a film, and we spend a lot more time talking about Se7en or The Silence of the Lambs as we construct that part of Barry's world, then I thought when we got into it. It helps balance a guy in a red suit who runs really fast.
Oy. Listen, The Silence of the Lambs is a great movie. Seven is a great movie. You know what the Flash has in common with them? Jack diddley squat. The Flash (or a Flash, since there are at least four) is a police technician who works in the lab -- he's not busting down doors to Jame Gumb's dungeon or finding Gwenyth's severed head in the desert. That's not his character, that's not his scene. The Flash lives in a bright, four-color world not some dank, grimy corner of Tim Burton's id. I'm not sure what about the character of Barry Allen screamed "torture and dismemberment" but it's certainly in no iteration of the character I've ever read or seen. This is as ill an omen for a comic book as the words "A Joel Schumacher Film," and it makes me worry for the future of both the Flash and Green Lantern. If the writer was this far off on his characterization for one hero, what are the odds he's got a lock on the other one?
Hey, Greg Berlanti, you know what was a really successful movie and is tonally similar to the Flash? Iron Man. Maybe you should be thinking more of the other quippy red-suited superhero rather than scary movies where people make skin suits of fat people and creepy-ass sh*t .
· Exclusive: Script for The Flash and GL2 Treatment in Progress [Superhero Hype]
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I think their reasoning is that the Flash is inherently sort of 'silly', that it's more interesting to bury him in a darker world, since, (and this might just be my most-DC-characters-suck-except-Batman bias speaking) the Flash is kind of boring otherwise.
Ya heard Ryan Reynolds is the Green Lantern, right?
Why does everything have to be "dark" now?
"It helps balance a guy in a red suit who runs really fast."
Greg, if we're going to see a movie with a fast guy in red spandex, we don't give a shit about balance. We're there because we want to see a fast guy in red spandex.
No one - SERIOUSLY - no one will hesitate about this movie because a bunch of gross murders aren't included. "Well, The Flash seemed silly at first, but I hear he chases after a guy who collects little girls' earlobes! That makes up for it!"
Two words: Gorilla Grodd (Make it happen, Berlanti)
I've already seen Se7en, but for those who haven't, is it truly necessary to spoil the ending? At least you could asterisk out the name. Just sayin'.
The Flash TV series of a few years ago had a dark look to it, which didn't quite fit with the Flash comics that I remember. But I always felt that was because the special effects looked better/were cheaper with a dark look than would have been possible with a brighter look. The tone of the series was still light. Someone who's seen the series more recently might be able to confirm this.
This is clearly a guy who never read the comic. Flash had a brightly colored, hypersuburban feel to it, at least in early issues, and in the Carmine Infantino books, it is visually nothing short of a Dr. Feelgood-powered turbo ride through the archtypes of Camelot - everybody is Kennedyesque, but inside a wind tunnel. This source material could be updated by making the movie sort of a modern sci-fi MadMen-style world that could conceivably be down the road from either Metropolis or Gotham City. And the suit better pop out of that ring.
This isn't what I would do with The Flash, but it isn't as tone deaf as some of you think. The Barry Allen stories took a darker turn when his wife was murdered. He latter went on trial for manslaughter. The last ten or fifteen years of Wally West stories frequently had this kind of tone to them. He wasn't a dark character, but his world was.
Yes, please use more discretion while discussing the fifteen year old movie.
DC stands for Dumb Comics,
To me, the most alarming thing about Berlanti's quote is how inarticulate it is. I don't really care about the Flash movie, but it's a pity that this well-paying job couldn't have gone to a writer who can, you know, form words into sentences and stuff.
Damn -- your comment right after the quote is spot on. FLASH has got nothing to do with Hannibal (the character) or Se7en -- sounds like big talk..
..but I guess it's alright to look at all the options possible. I mean, really, the FLASH is just a guy who can run fast.
Totally.
That's a big 'feature' in most movie sites: they really transcribe interviews -- they don't fix it afterwards. So when you read something that sounds awful, you gotta worry.
you couldn't find a better pull quote from which to build a column of snark with than that - but you're leaving out the context of the rest of his interview (which is linked _right there_ for gosh sakes) - here's another pull which, while no Grodd, should help you reset your heart rate: maybe he has read the comics and maybe he isn't so far off the mark (still, seven and lambs maybe weren't the best titles to float out there):
Being that a lot of Green Lantern's mythology is going to be introduced in that movie, we were curious which aspects of the "Flash" comics might make it into the first movie, asking in particular about the Rogues' Gallery and the time travel aspect of the comics:
"A third thing I'd throw at you is alternate dimensions, so it's true that we want to find the things that make it… With 'GL,' we used to say there's a space opera component and then there's the down on earth. In 'The Flash,' there's the sci-fi component and there's the crime component and it's fitting those two things together, and the sci-fi thing, we obviously want to nail that and honor that and do that in a way that feels visceral and real and cool and probably more in the tone of 'The Matrix" films or things like that. I always think of 'The Flash' stories where he met Jay Garrick and knows there was Earth Prime and things like that. There's an avenue for these films to broaden the DC Film Universe in that way, so that's the hope."
It agree, a useful phrase