The Flash (2022)

[The Laughing Fish]

It appears that Billy Crudup is very likely to reprise his role as Barry Allen's father again.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/billy-crudup-in-talks-to-join-the-flash-exclusive

If so, that's very good. It maintains some original DCEU continuity together with Miller and Affleck.

[The Laughing Fish]

The Flash's release date, like many other WB films, is delayed. Now the film will be scheduled to open on November 2022.

Lame. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more delays, both in terms of the release and filming.

[The Laughing Fish]

Ray Fisher last week condemned DC Films president Walter Hamada for enabling abuse and interfering with the investigation on what happened on the set of JL, and declared he won't work in any production that involves Hamada. Which curiously, was followed up with Hamada getting a contract extension.

The Wrap wrote a hit piece saying Fisher has stood down from the Cyborg role and his appearance in The Flash has been scrapped, but it won't be recast.

Fisher responded by saying he did NOT stand down, nor did he confirm he won't appear in The Flash.

I strongly suggest that @TheWrap amend this article immediately.

While I appreciate the reporter's undying desire to do @wbpictures and Walter Hamada's bidding—it is factually inaccurate.

I did not publicly step down from anything.

If @wbpictures has made the decision to remove me from The Flash, rather than address, in any way, Walter Hamada tampering with the JL investigation—that's on them.

The idea of removing the role, rather than recasting it, is only being used to try to avoid public backlash.

The @wbpictures pr team has struggled to regain control of the narrative ever since they failed to bury me and the JL investigation with their September 4th hit piece—which, unsurprisingly, was written by the same reporter.

(More on WB pr and Johanna Fuentes later...)

The fact is: the Justice League investigation led to @WarnerMedia (and it's affiliates) parting ways with Joss Whedon.

Geoff Johns will be following suit.

Had Walter Hamada gotten his way, NONE of that would have been possible, and the cycle of abuse would've continued.

My team and I are still in deep conversation with @WarnerMedia regarding all these matters and—Flash or no Flash—we fully intend to see this through.

I'll keep you all posted, but in the meantime—thank you for your continued support

A>E

https://twitter.com/ray8fisher/status/1347331765841633286

Fisher wrote these tweets at around 11am today. I've highlighted the part in bold with him saying Johns is expected to part ways, and what happens next? Variety tweeted this story that Johns was still working at WarnerMedia, which was published later in the afternoon.

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1347380986254802944

WB is desperately trying to control the narrative. It's getting pathetic. Five or so months ago, Fisher described his discussions with Hamada on Instagram, and mentioned Hamada tried to persuade him to throw Whedon under the bus as long as let Johns off the hook because he's considered to be valuable. Yeah right, "valuable". Johns was one of the key instigators behind the whole Josstice League debacle. Since then, the guy has been demoted from his role as DC Films chief, was given co-writing credit for Aquaman and WW84 but has otherwise stayed silent for the past three years. He hasn't even participated in promoting WW84, which seems very odd.

So far, Fisher appears to be correct in saying WB is trying to protect these incompetent corrupt people while using media outlets writing their own hit pieces. If Fisher was a troublemaker and a liar or embellished his claims in any way, he would've been sued for slander by now. For what it's worth, Fisher claimed Hamada thinks Whedon is an asshole and challenged Hamada to sue him if that wasn't the case. The silence on the matter says a lot.

Instead, we get stupid hit pieces of "insider sources" trying to throw shade at Fisher, dubious press releases of a new film starring Jason Momoa and produced by Johns and Berg, which got debunked by Momoa himself - as well as throwing his support behind Fisher - and trying to save face for Johns and Berg over "voluntarily" not getting involved with ZSJL while reporting Leto's return as the Joker. Give me a break.

It's definitely an awkward state of affairs. Producer Barbara Muschietti allegedly promised that Cyborg would return in The Flash, but if WB has their way and drop him then that would cause some interference. It doesn't sound like Cyborg's alleged involvement is that big, but will it then lead to more studio tampering with the production as what happened to SS and JL? Let's hope not.

If the hit pieces continue, I think Fisher, Momoa and others need to speak out in greater detail about what happened. WarnerMedia said they concluded their investigation over JL a month ago and said they'd take "remedial action" but didn't say what it was exactly. If they fail to address this matter transparently then the actors may need to start talking about it in detail.

[The Laughing Fish]

I've read some bullsh*t rumour that WB wants Danny DeVito to reprise his Penguin role in a cameo. Complete nonsense, we all know Penguin was killed off in the end of BR. Unless, Barry changes something in the Burtonverse timeline.

Nah, I highly doubt it.

[thecolorsblend]

I've read some bullsh*t rumour that WB wants Danny DeVito to reprise his Penguin role in a cameo. Complete nonsense, we all know Penguin was killed off in the end of BR. Unless, Barry changes something in the Burtonverse timeline.

Nah, I highly doubt it.

DeVito is pretty open about how much he loved that character. I could believe that he would relish coming back. But there's a long road between that and actually being willing to come back.

Color me skeptical.

[The Joker]

I've read some bullsh*t rumour that WB wants Danny DeVito to reprise his Penguin role in a cameo. Complete nonsense, we all know Penguin was killed off in the end of BR. Unless, Barry changes something in the Burtonverse timeline.

Nah, I highly doubt it.

Or maybe the Flash arrives in 1992 Burtonverse Gotham from the speed force, encounters Penguin, makes a snarky remark (with probably a comedic reaction from Penguin), and then just decides to quickly run right back into the speed force where he ends up in in current day Burtonverse Gotham?

That way, nothing is retconned, and it's just a cutesy nod to remind people just how awesome Danny Devito as the Penguin was.

But yeah, I remember Danny being on "Inside the Actors Studio", and near the end of the show, where members of the audience could then ask questions, Danny got more questions about the Penguin than any other role he had (at least 2-3 if I am remembering right), and he seemed like he had a lot of affection for that performance. Even referring to him as "Oswald", and not so much, "The Penguin".

I would say pretty much on par to how Jack Nicholson came across when discussing his portrayal of the Joker in the Batman89 2005 SE documentaries.

[The Dark Knight]

Or maybe the Flash arrives in 1992 Burtonverse Gotham from the speed force, encounters Penguin, makes a snarky remark (with probably a comedic reaction from Penguin), and then just decides to quickly run right back into the speed force where he ends up in in current day Burtonverse Gotham?

If it happens I'd choose this route.

IMO any scene would have to be done in an interior setting, because the look of Gotham in Flashpoint would probably have to be consistent. Eg. having a DeVito Penguin roaming around a B89 style Gotham, if the B89 aesthetic is what they're going with, would feel odd. How about Flash stumbling into the Hall of Records while Penguin is compiling his list? There's a disturbance because Oswald is not meant to be disturbed, so Flash promptly leaves.

[thecolorsblend]

I would say pretty much on par to how Jack Nicholson came across when discussing his portrayal of the Joker in the Batman89 2005 SE documentaries.

Y'know, for some reason this never clicked for me before.

But all of Burton's villains seem to cherish those characters. Nicholson, DeVito, Pfeiffer, they all adore those performances. Nicholson maintains that B89 is one of his finest performances. He got paid some serious F You money for that movie, which helps. But he seems to adore that performance and the same is true for the BR villains. I love Schumacher's films but I haven't seen Jones, Carrey, Thurman or Ahnuld wax nostalgic about those characters years later. Considering the amount of creative input Thurman had for Poison Ivy, that's a bit surprising. I could understand her saying something like "The movie's not good but I love that character!" But they haven't. Neeson, Hardy and that French broad are basically the same with their Nolanverse characters.

But Nicholson, DeVito and Pfeiffer have kept the home fires burning all these years. I just find that fascinating, personally.

[The Laughing Fish]

Is producer Barbara Muschietti teasing Reverse-Flash?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ51sxaLdHR/

I've read some bullsh*t rumour that WB wants Danny DeVito to reprise his Penguin role in a cameo. Complete nonsense, we all know Penguin was killed off in the end of BR. Unless, Barry changes something in the Burtonverse timeline.

Nah, I highly doubt it.

Or maybe the Flash arrives in 1992 Burtonverse Gotham from the speed force, encounters Penguin, makes a snarky remark (with probably a comedic reaction from Penguin), and then just decides to quickly run right back into the speed force where he ends up in in current day Burtonverse Gotham?

That way, nothing is retconned, and it's just a cutesy nod to remind people just how awesome Danny Devito as the Penguin was.

That could work. As long as it doesn't do something stupid as breaking continuity like Alexander Knox's cameo in CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths, it should be fine.





Hmmm. I wonder if the original newspaper headline with Keaton was scrapped because they plan to use it for this film?

[The Laughing Fish]

sh*t news: Ray Fisher has confirmed that Warner Butchers did remove him from The Flash after all, and revealed Cyborg was meant to have a big role. He explained in two pictures that this is punishment for calling out DC Films President Walter Hamada, who was accused by Fisher of interfering with the investigation over the misconduct during Josstice League's reshoots, as well as trying to protect Geoff Johns during that time.

Source: https://twitter.com/ray8fisher/status/1349500170896084992

Great, another DC movie meddled by insidious studio politics. It's a disgrace.

Miller's cameo in CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths was supposed to foreshadow this film, along with the line at the end, "I told Victor this was possible". So yeah, Cyborg was expected to appear.

WarnerMedia has responded by apparently siding with Hamada, and used the trades like THR to write hit-pieces about Fisher's "attacks", as well as stating Johns is still working with the company, in an attempt to contradict Fisher's claims that Johns is expected to leave. Hiding behind hit pieces, yet again. So much for the corporate entity's announcement in repairing its image in light of recent reports of its toxic workplace environment.

It's pathetic. Just when I thought the DCEU was getting things back on track, this sh*t happens. If Andy Muschietti wasn't involved in the decision to scrap Fisher's Cyborg from The Flash then it goes to show this will be a film made-by-committee. That's how we got Josstice League. I'd be very surprised if Affleck doesn't drop out, the studio's meddling and how it soured the production experience on JL was one of the key reasons why he left the Batman role in the first place.

I regret to say it, but I'm going to put my enthusiasm for The Flash on hold and see what else happens.

By the way, anyone who is doubting Fisher's credibility in any way, let me ask you something: don't you think it's a little odd that Warner hasn't sued him for defamation yet? If Fisher was lying and making libelous claims about all of these people, he would've been taken to court by now. Instead, all we from WB are these petty little hit pieces and ridiculous fake press releases to movies that aren't even in production to make the Josstice League producers look good, which even Momoa called out its bullsh*t. Anyone who doesn't think these are attempts to control the narrative is a fool. Because if the studio has nothing to hide, they would've canned Fisher's ass legally a long time ago.

As far as I can tell, I'm inclined to believe in the lesser-known actor who is putting his own career on the line, and not the studio with a notorious history of internal sabotage. And by all accounts, discrimination.

That being said, I reckon it's about time for everyone else who was subjected to abuse and misconduct on the JL reshoots to come forward and talk about their experiences because it's evidently clear that WarnerMedia/WB can't be trusted in holding anyone accountable.