DC Movies - To Infinity and Beyond
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
"No such thing as bad press" certainly did wonders for Kevin Spacey's career.
We're not talking about a career. We're talking about one movie. It's a specious comparison, because Spacey -- or Miller, or whoever -- is responsible for their own misdeeds, but a movie they appeared in does not shoulder the same blame.
Granted, sometimes a scandal attached to a movie can drive people away from it, but sometimes it can generate more attention and interest. I mean, would the Snyder Cut have ever happened if not for the controversy over it? It's a different kind of controversy, somewhat, but it certainly generated a lot of sustained attention.
It's more than somewhat different, though. A superhero movie being edgy or having controversial versions of characters, or being partly the result of an abusive online fan campaign, is not even close to a superhero movie starring a pedophile. People react badly to anything even remotely connected to pedophiles. Very badly.
Zaslav appears to have his vision for adapted DC properties locked into place, and if that's the case, I would imagine he will shift the focus of the Flash movie to be that bridge (for the alternate worlds) more than a Flash movie, so at the end of it all, the film will still see its release (and as noted before, the financial interests were likely to prevent it from being shelved). No one knows what was shot for the film, what plots were emphasized, or rendered less important, so for all anyone knows, there might be existing footage that tells much of the same story--only from the POV of the other superheroes introduced in this film (and have a future in films to come).
From that point, Zaslav would take some of the Miller sting out the film, and be prepared (if they are not at present) to re-cast the part.
From that point, Zaslav would take some of the Miller sting out the film, and be prepared (if they are not at present) to re-cast the part.
Honestly when this finally went into production I was surprised they decided to call it merely “The Flash”. When the first concept art released was of him with Michael Keaton’s Batman. It been clear for awhile that the Flash is being used as storytelling device. More of the audiences tour guide of the Multiverse than an actual Flash solo film.
Edit to add-
A lot of people work on a movie. Probably thousands. It would be ridiculous to throw away all their work over the actions of one individual.
Edit to add-
A lot of people work on a movie. Probably thousands. It would be ridiculous to throw away all their work over the actions of one individual.
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Then you do agree that there is such a thing as bad press. Case closed.
I'm not the one who originated the saying, so kindly don't make this personal.
Yeah, but you did seem to be saying that the news stories about Miller possibly being a pedophile could be good for the movie, which is not necessarily the case. Even if there are lot of other people involved with the movie, the fact is unless changes are made, Miller is going to be the face of this movie, and not a lot of people are going to be rushing to a theater to see a movie with an accused pedophile front and center.
I'm addressing the points you made in posts directed at me. I'm not sure in what way I was supposedly making it personal. (Is it because I didn't use a smiley?)
You used the phrase "all publicity is good publicity..." but then later agreed that it's not necessarily true. So we do agree that bad publicity exists, and my original point was simply that Ezra Miller being accused of inappropriate behavior with multiple children will make the marketing of the film harder...and you said I was wrong.
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That's a bizarrely overspecific way of reading it. I'm just saying that, in general, you can't assume that controversy is automatically or inevitably bad for a movie's box office chances. I'm not saying I know what will or won't happen with this specific movie. I'm just contributing ideas to the discussion, trying to provide some balance. When considering an issue, one should open one's mind to all possibilities and perspectives, rather than latching onto one and shooting down everything else. It's wise to be aware of one's uncertainty. Even if one possibility seems likely, it's just good judgment to consider alternatives rather than recklessly mistaking likelihood for certainty.
Perhaps if they decide not release the Flash film they can repurpose some of it in other films to tell the story they want to tell without the Flash.
Again, this is not an option for WB. The movie cost around 200 million dollars. They might re-edit it to downplay Miller's Flash. They might digitally replace Miller. Or they might release as is but market it mostly on Keaton's Batman and the new Supergirl. But they will definitely release it.
I think I read somewhere that the cost of digitally replacing Miller would exceed any expected losses due to the bad press.
To all indications, the plan is to go ahead with the release and hope the movie's strengths outweigh the bad publicity: https://gizmodo.com/the-flash-ezra-miller-warner-bros-batman-supergirl-mult-1849008552
Unlikely from a business perspective. That would flush the investment in the Flash production (not going to happen) in order to force it into films the specific narrative was not designed to support. Further, other post-Flash films are either in production or will be, each having their own, post-Flash direction, so the "bridge" narrative of this film would be something that (in-universe) already occurred.
I go away for awhile, come back and learn that Ezra Miller has literally transformed from the Flash to Reverse Flash. It’s hilarious. Because the Flashpoint movie was meant to remove and reset Batman and Superman. But it turns out Flash will be getting flashpointed as well.
Giving Cavil and Affleck what they wanted back in 2017, doesn’t seem like such a bad deal in hindsight.
Giving Cavil and Affleck what they wanted back in 2017, doesn’t seem like such a bad deal in hindsight.
Given that it's not outside of the bounds of possibility that he's going to kill someone I wouldn't be so sure.
If it comes to that, they're still more likely to reshoot his part with a different actor. It would still be cheaper than not releasing the movie at all. And let's all remember, HBO Max spent $ 75 million on Zack Snyder completing his Justice League Cut, that was an almost completed film going to streaming without a theatrical release, so they definitely would spend some coin on fixing the Miller problem with a pivotal theatrical release.
On the contrary. According to Variety:
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/ezra-miller-the-flash-1235277665/
So it would be far more expensive than ditching the movie, because it would mean both ditching the existing movie and shooting a complete replacement for it.
According to the article, WB is quite happy with the movie and simply can't afford to do anything but release it theatrically in its current form. All they can do is try to minimize the damage from the bad publicity by keeping Miller out of the promotional efforts. They're hoping that they can keep the focus on the character of the Flash rather than the actor playing him.
That only happened because HBO Max needed original content and COVID had shut down most production, so revamping something that had already been mostly shot was the only feasible way to meet that need. It was the result of a unique combination of circumstances, so it doesn't work as a precedent for other things.
As I mentioned on the last page WB will release the movie and hope things settle down. The movie will generate income probably not alot and be a financial disaster. WB let's Ezra go. They try again with Wally West two years after the failure of Ezra's Flash movie.