What Should WB Do With The Flash Movie?

I'd argue that neither of those actors are the lead/face of the project (and one's obv just a writer), nor are their controversies as widely publicized. Hammer maybe, for a minute there, but the news faded on that pretty quickly.

But Miller is the face of this thing, and has been in the news constantly over the past few months. There's also video of him committing one of the acts.

Warners is in a rough position here. They should've fired him right when he choke slammed that girl at a bar. Would've avoided this ongoing disaster.

There have been other problematic actors with upcoming projects, but I can't recall an actor with allegations involving children , which then the studio doubled down on, and went ahead with a release .

There have been incidents with allegations with actors, directors, etc, after the fact, but by that point, the films, tv shows, etc, were already out and released.

So this specific instance is a bit uncarted in recent memory.
 
One thing is for sure; you won't have #ReleasetheEzraCut trending if they end up reshooting Ezra's scenes with someone else.

. . .is it terrible that I think you are overly optimistic? You can get a subset of people to excuse or rationalize away almost any horrible behavior. All it takes is somebody starting a conspiracy theory that Ezra is being framed, in order to censor creative freedom. . .

Anyway, I lean to "Release on HBO Max". Nothing they can do in term of recasting or reshooting is going to fix things; even if they literally replaced Miller with another actor, the discourse about the movie will still be about Miller. Only time can fix that, more time than WB can afford to just keep a movie in the vault. Releasing it to streaming with little fanfare or promotion, and maybe a few press statements about the situation, would keep the studio from being actively harmed by said release, while letting them eek out some small recover from the disaster of a project. Its basically the "slightly better than canning the movie" option.
 
Ezra should have been fired the moment multiple accounts of his run-ins with police and assaulting women came out. Even when he supposedly injured a woman there were still articles saying WB had no plans to fire him and no one from the company was rushing to correct that reporting. I still say Zaslav has to make statement that addresses this before any release of the movie rather than hope for this to quietly ride this out until afterwards.
 
I'd argue that neither of those actors are the lead/face of the project (and one's obv just a writer), nor are their controversies as widely publicized. Hammer maybe, for a minute there, but the news faded on that pretty quickly.

But Miller is the face of this thing, and has been in the news constantly over the past few months. There's also video of him committing one of the acts.

Warners is in a rough position here. They should've fired him right when he choke slammed that girl at a bar. Would've avoided this ongoing disaster.

Hammer's was widely publicized and was trending all over social media. Warren Ellis was the lead writer and showrunner of Castlevania.
 
True, but neither of their allegations concerned children.

The reality is , people tend to have a different standard and perception when it comes to allegations of grooming children than when it comes to abuse and misconduct involving adults.
 
The Death on the Nile comparison is a bad one for 1 primary reason: that is an adult oriented murder mystery. They are not selling figures and Halloween costumes of Death on the Nile to children. The Flash is a 200 million dollar film heavily marketed to kids. So having a child predator as your lead is way more problematic than what Death on the Nile faced. And even there, Disney considered shelving that movie entirely.
On the other hand, Death on the Nile cost less than half of what The Flash did, it was a film that Disney probably never paid a dime outside the marketing since it went into development before the Fox acquisition, and at best it could have had a moderate success at the box office. And they still didn't shelf it. Not that I heard a scenario that they would.

The Flash is a film that is supposed to be a huge DCEU event that not only has/had big box office potential, but also revolves around some of the most pivotal plot developments in the franchise, that are going to affect future installments. It's not a stand-alone film that you can theoretically ignore or a medium sized production that you can sacrifice to avoid possible backlash.

There are various ways they can approach this and I don't know what they'll end up doing, but I do know that reshooting the whole movie to remove Miller or killing the entire project is just not a viable solution and it isn't going to happen. Especially now that Zaslav took over.
 
On the other hand, Death on the Nile cost less than half of what The Flash did, it was a film that Disney probably never paid a dime outside the marketing since it went into development before the Fox acquisition, and at best it could have had a moderate success at the box office. And they still didn't shelf it. Not that I heard a scenario that they would.

The Flash is a film that is supposed to be a huge DCEU event that not only has/had big box office potential, but also revolves around some of the most pivotal plot developments in the franchise, that are going to affect future installments. It's not a stand-alone film that you can theoretically ignore or a medium sized production that you can sacrifice to avoid possible backlash.

There are various ways they can approach this and I don't know what they'll end up doing, but I do know that reshooting the whole movie to remove Miller or killing the entire project is just not a viable solution and it isn't going to happen. Especially now that Zaslav took over.

Yes, and it is an event film that is going to tank and receive a giant wave of backlash for putting a child predator in the role of a child icon. This isn't a small thing against the movie in PR. They are going to get creamed everywhere for putting out a movie and selling merch go children starring a child predator. We all agree the movie isn't going to be profitable, but the extra money invested I think has a much better chance at making it more profitable than as it stands.
 
This should be a HBO Max release like WW84. It was supposed to be a big screen release but for whatever reason, it isn’t. Take the loss. Seems like the obvious choice. Sure the box office isn’t there but that movie would still be a huge draw for subscribers. Were we expecting this to crack a billion? I don’t think so.

Release Batgirl in theaters because Batman sells. Recoup any BO possible with that release. Put all your Keaton promotion/nostalgia there with him and Leslie on the talk show circuit.

And pray Black Adam isn’t the latest Morbius lol. Maybe it’ll exceed expectations
 
Oh, or shelve it entirely. This one never really sparked my interest beyond Michael Keaton.

But don’t let this go to theaters.
 
Yes, and it is an event film that is going to tank and receive a giant wave of backlash for putting a child predator in the role of a child icon. This isn't a small thing against the movie in PR. They are going to get creamed everywhere for putting out a movie and selling merch go children starring a child predator. We all agree the movie isn't going to be profitable, but the extra money invested I think has a much better chance at making it more profitable than as it stands.
That's why they may end up replacing Miller near the end of the film for future appearances or even the final act, by introducing the next Flash and make all merchandise about him. Or like others have suggested trying to present the film like an ensemble instead of a Flash solo outing, with promotion lying heavily on Batman and Supergirl. There are many things they can do but making the film not see the light of day, is just not going to happen.
 
That's why they may end up replacing Miller near the end of the film for future appearances or even the final act, by introducing the next Flash and make all merchandise about him. Or like others have suggested trying to present the film like an ensemble instead of a Flash solo outing, with promotion lying heavily on Batman and Supergirl. There are many things they can do but making the film not see the light of day, is just not going to happen.

That doesn't change anything cause even if you change his face at the end, your movie stars a child predator. The PR backlash will be the same. It isn't a fix. It's not even a bandaid
 
That doesn't change anything cause even if you change his face at the end, your movie stars a child predator. The PR backlash will be the same. It isn't a fix. It's not even a bandaid
Well, I'm not arguing whether this is the right approach or not, I'm just saying that is the more possible one, realistically speaking. In any case, it will depend on what happens with Miller in the next few weeks or months too.
 
Read the plot leak in the spoilers thread. We’re not missing much if this is shelved and is a loss for the studio.

Lol by the time this movie started production anyway they needed another Flashpoint so this can give them the cushion time to really pivot correctly (including away from Miller) and set-up the DCEU properly moving forward.
 
Well, I'm not arguing whether this is the right approach or not, I'm just saying that is the more possible one, realistically speaking. In any case, it will depend on what happens with Miller in the next few weeks or months too.

WB has been hoping time would make this go away, and everyday it gets worse. So sure, this film is a year out. But that is another year of more outbursts and possible accusations of impropriety. Based on how this has gone so far, I can only expect it to get worse
 
I think we’re all on the same page with how we feel about Ezra and these allegations but i think guys we also have to ask ourselves if shelving the movie or stuffing it on HBO Max is fair to all of the other people involved with the film. The actors, the technicians, the director, they all worked hard on this thing and should they be punished for what Ezra’s doing? Its not an easy answer i know but one worth asking. Ezra is the face of this movie but he is not the movie, if that makes sense .
 
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I think we’re all on the same page with how we feel about Ezra and these allegations but i think guys we also have to ask ourselves if shelving the movie or stuffing it on HBO Max is fair to all of the other people involved with the film. The actors, the technicians, the director, they all worked hard on this thing and should they be punished for what Ezra’s doing? Its not an easy answer i know but one worth asking. Ezra is the fave of this movie but he is not the movie, if that makes sense .

The reality is, people, meaning the GA and The Press, are not going to care about all the hard work that went into the film, and fair or not, it will be seen as Ezra's film and people won't care about the substance of the film.

All they'll see is a child groomer or predator at the lead of this film.

We can throw out as many financial factors, contracts, or the work put into the project it up to release day , but the reality is, a film with this lead attached to it is gonna be stigmatized, and its already stigmatized.

It'll be a lost cause with the GA, assuming they know about the allegations.
That's why WB seems to hope, naively, they'll go away.

The question, it seems to me, has more to do with how badly fandom really wants to see this thing, and whether or not enough fans will be willing to overlook Ezra's allegations just to see The Flash film.

I'm not seeing this thing as it stands with Miller as its lead, even with the rumored cameos and Keaton returning.

That's just my personal feeling with regards to whether I want to see this thing in light of the accusations.
 
I think we’re all on the same page with how we feel about Ezra and these allegations but i think guys we also have to ask ourselves if shelving the movie or stuffing it on HBO Max is fair to all of the other people involved with the film. The actors, the technicians, the director, they all worked hard on this thing and should they be punished for what Ezra’s doing? Its not an easy answer i know but one worth asking. Ezra is the face of this movie but he is not the movie, if that makes sense .

Doesn't matter. It may not be fair to the cast and crew, but that doesn't change the situation. Would you have released a Superman movie starring Jared from Subway after he was arrested? Having a child predator in a movie heavily targeted for children as the lead character is just something you can't do. Which is why I think the fairest thing is to reshoot it
 
Cast and crew have already been paid for their work and when it comes to the likes of Keaton, like I said before, I doubt they would be too thrilled to be seen alongside Ezra in this situation. Keaton's Batman is making his big return and Supergirl is making her debut. All potentially marred.
 
For those saying WB should still release as is, I have a follow up question. Do you think there is a line where they have to shelve it that simply hasn’t been met yet? An arrest? A trial at the same time the movie is to be released? A full Chris Benoit situation where a kid is murdered? Or should they release it no matter what happens?

I just want to know where we stand on this.
 
I mean, everyone else does deserve to have their work seen. I mean, we haven't scrubbed Jeepers Creepers from being seen. Depending on the contracts, theatrical is a no go, at this rate.
 
Reshoot and maybe rewrite the ending with the rebooted timeline with a new Barry Allen actor and use that actor for all posters, toys, etc. Publically condemn Ezra and try to pull legal shenanigans to get rid of his percentage backend from the box office and donate it to the victims or some child protection charity.
 
As unprecedented and expensive as it would be, I think extensive reshoots and CGI to completely remove Miller is the only real option, there's too much riding on this movie to shelve it, and just minor reshoots wouldn't change that it's a Flash movie starring a child predator as a superhero for kids to look up to.
 

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