The troubled production of The Flash is leaving Warner Bros with a decision to make.
A report has emerged via The Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros is mulling over three possible contingencies to deal with the continued public relations nightmare that is The Flash.
For much of this year, the film’s star, Ezra Miller has been caught up in a tide of legal troubles that continue to haunt the production. After a tumultuous few months, this week has been particularly difficult for the studio with Miller being arrested for burglary by Vermont police on Monday, before Rolling Stone published fresh troubling claims about the actor on Wednesday.
Pressure is mounting on the studio to act now, even though the film is not due to be released until next summer. Thanks to the recent merger with Discovery, Warner Bros has a new executive at the top in the form of David Zaslav and under his guidance, the studio has reportedly put together a strategy which aims to keep Miller in the film and stick to the planned release date.
The first option is believed to the preferred one, with Miller seeking professional help, then giving an interview of some kind to explain their behaviour. The film will then release as scheduled with Miller doing very limited press.
The second option would be to release the film even if Miller does not co-operate. This would mean the actor doing no press and reportedly losing the role of Flash moving forwards.
Finally, if the negative press surrounding Miller continues, or even worsens, Warner Bros is – here we go – considering simply pulling the plug on the film entirely. It is believed that Miller is simply too involved in the film for reshoots to recast them so the studio feel a final resort would be to simply not release the film. It has already deployed this ‘nuclear’ tactic once with Batgirl and if the company is able to essentially write the film off as a tax break as it did with that film, perhaps it isn’t as unappealing an option as you might think for Warner Bros. That said, we are talking about writing off a $200m film here, something that we’ve never really seen before, even in Hollywood.
Either way, the next few weeks seem like a crucial moment for the fate of The Flash, and we’ll let you hear more as we hear it.
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