THE FLASH Loses Director Over “Creative Differences”

Seth Grahame-Smith has resigned from directing The Flash.

The Hollywood Reporter was the first to break the story that the first-time director had left the project over the ubiquitous “creative differences” with Warner Bros.

Set to hit theaters in March 2018, the film stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen, AKA “The Flash” (also played by fan favorite Grant Gustin on the small screen) with a script by Grahame-Smith based on a treatment by Phil Lord an Christopher Miller. Lord and Miller had considered directing, and now might they be a possible replacement for the directing duties?

Movie-goers got a first glimpse of Miller as the Scarlet Speedster in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which under-performed at the box office (only $855 million instead of the hoped-for billion-plus) and met overwhelmingly negative criticism before taking a sharp decline in ticket sales during its second week.

Rumor has it that executives at Warner Bros. have made the decision to be more involved in the production process, rather than let producer/director Zack Snyder have a free hand. If that’s the case, then the “creative differences” could actually be the reason for Grahame-Smith’s departure. Given his track record in screenwriting — The LEGO Batman Movie, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and the new Beetlejuice — could his tone and vision have run counter to that of the WB execs? Or was it not in line with Snyder’s overall concept of this movie universe?

Now the question comes as to whether WB finds a replacement in time to keep the current release date.