Andy Muschietti’s ”The Flash” was plagued by delays, reshoots and star Ezra Miller’s criminal activity. The lukewarm reviews sealed the deal for the movie which ended up losing Warner Bros around $200M.
There’s been no accountability for what happened on “The Flash.” Who was actually responsible for its failure? Muschietti? Miller? Zaslav? It doesn’t sound like Muschietti was reprimanded either as he’s still set to direct “The Brave and the Bold” for Warner Bros’ DCU.
Here’s Muschietti, finally tackling the failure, and giving his own theory as to why he thinks “The Flash” didn’t find an audience (via Reel Anrachy), and he seems to be throwing his star, Miller, under the bus, or at least he’s acknowledging the “mental health” aspect that destroyed his film:
[“The Flash” failure] was the result of a mental health situation, you know. It turned out the way it turned out, let’s say. I mean, they [Miller] were dealing with a mental health situation, and well, when you make a movie, there are things you just can’t control. One of them is when actors have a public relations crisis. You know, they got into trouble, was arrested in Hawaii, etc. I had, in general, a very good experience with them. They’re a great actor, a great comedian. I was very surprised by them. But then, towards the end, I came across all of this.
Miller had quite the summer, leading up to “The Flash” being released, assaulting people around the world, left and right, and at one point, disappearing from authorities.
Miller’s summer “adventures” are too many to list in just one article, but here goes: he choked a woman, was accused of grooming children, was arrested multiple times for punching people, committed armed robbery. He also reportedly, and illegally, housed a mother and three young children on an unlicensed cannabis farm.
Call it a mental breakdown, or whatever you want, but the actor cracked. I do hope Miller has sought the help needed to better himself and make things right. Last I heard, he was supposedly now in an entourage with Hebrew rapper Matisyahu, and has been spending the better part of his time at his Vermont-based goat farm. Keeping it low-key.
Muschietti went on to add that it wasn’t just Miller’s serial crime spree that was to blame for “The Flash” failure. He’s also now throwing the Flash character himself under the bus, saying that he just wasn’t as popular with moviegoers, specifically the female demographic.
When you spend $200 million making a movie, Warner wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters. And I found out in private conversations that a lot of people just don't care about The Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. There are a lot of women who aren’t interested in Flash as a character.
Notice how Muschietti fails to mention how the project had five different directors, and four different writing teams. How the movie was also released just as the DCEU was being disbanded by Warner Bros in favor of James Gunn’s DCU.
Maybe the biggest omission is Muschietti’s failure to admit how “The Flash” just wasn’t that good of a movie. Maybe it wasn’t the travesty that many critics claimed it to be, but it surely was a mess of a movie, attempting to jam in as much plot and characters into its 140 minute runtime, and eventually combusting in its second half.