Ezra Miller’s Flash Movie Starts Over With ‘It’ Director Andy Muschietti and New Script

Warner Bros.’ long-in-the-works standalone Flash movie is moving forward by starting from scratch. “It” and “It: Chapter Two” director Andy Muschietti has signed on to direct the DC Extended Universe tentpole, which is still expected to star Ezra Miller in the title role (via The Wrap). Miller debuted as Bary Allen/The Flash in Zack Snyder’s 2017 superhero movie “Justice League.”

A standalone Flash movie has been in the works for some time at Warner Bros., first with director Seth Grahame-Smith and then with “Dope” filmmaker Rick Famuyiwa. Grahame-Smith, best known for genre efforts like “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter” and “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” wrote the first script for the Flash movie. Both he and Famuyiwa left the project over creative differences with Warner Bros.

The most recent incarnation of the Flash movie was set to be directed by “Vacation” and “Game Night” duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. The filmmaking team has left the project, with Muschietti stepping in to direct.

Muschietti has a successful partnership with Warner Bros. thanks to the “It” horror movie franchise. The 2017 first chapter became the highest grossing horror film ever released at the worldwide box office, unadjusted for inflation. The Flash film is being overhauled from the ground up, with the most recent script from Miller and comics author Grant Morrison being scrapped in favor of a new screenplay from Christina Hodson. The “Bumblebee” screenwriter has experience in the DCEU having written the upcoming Margot Robbie/Harley Quinn tentpole “Birds of Prey.”

Goldstein and Daley exit comes after the filmmaking duo clashed with Miller over the direction to take with a Flash movie. Miller, having worked with Snyder on “Justice League,” preferred a more darker approach to the character, while the pair wanted to keep things light and more akin to what James Wan did with “Aquaman.” Wan was another Warner Bros. horror veteran (“The Conjuring”) who struck box office gold with the DCEU, as “Aquaman” broke the $1 billion mark worldwide.

Warner Bros. is opening Muschietti’s “It: Chapter Two” in theaters nationwide September 6.