Batgirl movie shelved despite near-completion.

[bilateralrope]

The Flash Production Designer Says Audiences Will 'Forget' Ezra Miller's Crimes

The Flash production designer Paul Austerberry believes the DC Studios film will make audiences forget Ezra Miller's crimes and problematic behavior

BY ANDREAS NEUENKIRCHEN
PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO

The Flash's production designer Paul Austerberry believes Ezra Miller's performance on screen will make fans forget the actor's offscreen behavior.

Talking to CBC, Austerberry said Miller did such a superb job that "[p]eople will forget" all the negative press the actor accumulated in the last couple of years. He stressed Miller's dedication and professionalism while being under "a lot of pressure." Austerberry pointed out Miller had to play two different versions of the character, switching roles every few days. According to the production designer, who won an Academy Award for The Shape of Water, Miller had only three days off during the entire shoot. They filmed six days a week and spent one in stunt rehearsals. It has been reported earlier that Miller did their own stunts for The Flash.

Ezra Miller's Legal Troubles

Miller has a history of run-ins with the law and alleged erratic behavior, starting with an arrest for drug possession in 2011, which led to two citations of disorderly conduct. In 2022, they faced multiple charges and accusations, including burglary, disorderly conduct, harassment and second-degree assault. The parents of Indigenous activist Tokata Iron Eyes accused the actor of grooming their daughter since childhood and filed a protection order against Miller. Allegations of drug abuse, child endangerment and harassment were also made in separate cases in Vermont and Massachusets. Miller released a statement in August 2022, acknowledging "suffering complex mental health issues" and saying they had "begun ongoing treatment."

Despite Miller's legal troubles and problems, The Flash has been generating considerable buzz for months. A recent screening had some participants calling it one of the best superhero movies ever. Marketing for the film has focused heavily on Michael Keaton returning as Batman. However, Barbara Muschietti, one of the film's producers, insisted the Flash is still the center of the movie, with Miller being in almost every scene.

The Flash Star's Reported Recovery

Moreover, director Andy Muschietti recently updated audiences on Miller's progress, stating, "We’re all hoping that they get better. [They're] taking the steps to recovery, [they're] dealing with mental health issues, but [they're] well. We talked to them not too long ago, and [they're] very committed to get better."

Miller's first featured appearance as The Flash was in 2017's Justice League, after cameoing as the character in Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad one year earlier. While the initial theatrical version of Justice League received lukewarm responses, Miller's performance was generally praised.

The Flash opens in theaters June 16.

Shut up an consume. Stop asking questions when he hire problematic people like JK Rowling or refuse to fire someone like Ezra Miller.

Is there anyone here who was interested enough in this movie to be able to claim that you are boycotting it ?

[Crazedwraith]

Cynically they very well may turn out to be correct and people don't give a shit about Miller's misdeeds when they see the movie. That doesn't make it morally right though.

I was interested in the movie tbh long before Miller's stuff. And it's sad for Keaton and the new Supergirl actress to get their appearances cut short because of the WBD stuff.

DC are giving this a massive advertising push that they didn't give to Shazam 2, they just sent that one out to die but then if it's still flashpoint based and built up as being the reboot of the verse for Gunn they really want people to watch it to be invested in the new verse I guess.

[bilateralrope]

I've been trying to imagine how I would have reacted had they said something condemning his crimes while claiming that they found out about them too late to replace him. I don't know how I would have reacted.

[LadyTevar]

Cynically they very well may turn out to be correct and people don't give a shit about Miller's misdeeds when they see the movie. That doesn't make it morally right though.

I was interested in the movie tbh long before Miller's stuff. And it's sad for Keaton and the new Supergirl actress to get their appearances cut short because of the WBD stuff.

DC are giving this a massive advertising push that they didn't give to Shazam 2, they just sent that one out to die but then if it's still flashpoint based and built up as being the reboot of the verse for Gunn they really want people to watch it to be invested in the new verse I guess.

TBH, even without Miller's crimes, I wasn't going to see the Flash movie anyway. I have no interest in watching DCU movies.

[Ralin]

You know, how justified it is depends on who we're talking about and what they did and all, but honestly I'd really like it if it wasn't a default assumption that the public and employers should be able to demand actors and other creative types meet an acceptable level of moral purity in their personal lives or risk being fired/boycotted.

I'm not saying it's wrong. But I don't think my boss should have any say or involvement in what I do when I'm not at work. And as justified as any specific case may be it gets fucking draining to constantly have to pick a side on these things.

Not that I planned to see it either.

[Solauren]

I'm not planning to see the Flash movie in theaters, and probably not on video disc.

[bilateralrope]

This article is mainly speculation based on the Q1, 23 earnings call. So I'm only quoting the transcript of the call:

"We have a very good gaming business with 11 different studios, and a real talented capability.

"But the real differentiator for us as a company is that we own our IP. That IP belongs to us, and we're developing it, and in some cases we may choose to develop it with a third party game technology company.

"We may be the only media company that owns--whether it be the DC universe, Harry Potter, all the content that we own, Game of Thrones--that's for us to deploy. I think that's particularly important strategically.

"If you look at Hogwarts Legacy, a big piece of the success of that game is that you go into it. If you're a player, you go into that game and you're in that world. That's kind of a new concept. Before it was gaming and it was storytelling, and now...it's very difficult to understand what the definition of the metaverse is...

"When we launch a product on Max or HBO, and when we have a game, that game belongs to us, but now there's this in-betweener. It may be in the next couple of years that we launch a Superman movie and...people spend more time and there's more economics of people just hanging out in the Superman world and universe.

"The fact that we own all of that is something that I think is going to be really important as we look forward--as technology develops, and given the amount of time that people spend on gaming, we don't want to be in the motion picture and longform storytelling business and have somebody else in the business of hanging out in those worlds. Those worlds are going to be quite profitable in the years ahead."

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/91352/ne ... index.html

"We may be the only media company that owns--whether it be the DC universe, Harry Potter, all the content that we own, Game of Thrones--that's for us to deploy. I think that's particularly important strategically.

I'm not sure what he's trying to say here. Unless he's saying that he isn't paying attention to media companies like Disney.

"If you look at Hogwarts Legacy, a big piece of the success of that game is that you go into it. If you're a player, you go into that game and you're in that world. That's kind of a new concept. Before it was gaming and it was storytelling, and now...it's very difficult to understand what the definition of the metaverse is...

He clearly hasn't been paying much attention to video games.

This is the person in charge of WB/HBO.

You know, how justified it is depends on who we're talking about and what they did and all, but honestly I'd really like it if it wasn't a default assumption that the public and employers should be able to demand actors and other creative types meet an acceptable level of moral purity in their personal lives or risk being fired/boycotted.

I'm not saying it's wrong. But I don't think my boss should have any say or involvement in what I do when I'm not at work. And as justified as any specific case may be it gets fucking draining to constantly have to pick a side on these things.

Not that I planned to see it either.

I see your point. All I can add is that there are three points to consider:
- It's rarely just that one creative. It's also everyone who decides to bring them on and then downplay how serious it is with things like saying the movie is so good you'll forget the crimes of the main star or that Rowling's transphobia is an "internet discussion".
- There is a perception of connected people getting away with their crimes. For example, I look at Ezra Miller and wonder how they have avoided jail time.
- With big productions, removing someone as central to it as one of the main actors becomes impracticable after a point.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It's also noteworthy which pronouns that Ezra Miller has elected to go with, too.

[bilateralrope]

Two updates about the WB/HBO trainwreck that appeared in my feeds:

With ‘The Flash,’ DC Now Has 6 Of The 10 Biggest Comic Book Movie Bombs Ever

Paul Tassi
Senior Contributor
News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet.

Jul 8, 2023,10:44am EDT


I honestly cannot believe how big of a bomb The Flash has turned out to be. While not stellar, it was a pretty solid entry in the DC canon, but a combination of an unknown/controversial star, the DCEU dying and the failure of gimmicks like Keaton’s Batman meant that audiences simply did not show up.

As a result, The Flash will apparently lose Warner Bros. $200 million when all is said and done due to its high cost and low revenue. That makes it the biggest comic book movie bomb ever, and up there with famous flops like the also-$200-million-losing John Carter.

But if you ever needed a sign that DC needed to change things up, you can look at the overall comic book movie bomb list, which I saw being passed around the other day. In fact, six of the top 10 biggest bombs are from DC, and five of them are within the last three years. Practically every post-Aquaman DCEU movie.

Here’s the list:

1. The Flash - $200m
2. Shazam! Fury of the Gods - $150m
3. Wonder Woman 1984 - $137m
4. Dark Phoenix - $133m
5. The Suicide Squad - $130m
6. Black Adam - $100m
7. Fantastic Four - $100m
8. RIPD - $92m
9. The New Mutants - $84m
10. Green Lantern - $75m

The only non-DC/Marvel superhero film on the list is RIPD, which make Ryan Reynolds’ second movie on the list besides famous failure Green Lantern (but he’s since redeemed himself in the genre with Deadpool, of course).

Of the Marvel movies, none are in the MCU. There are two X-Men movies at the tail end of the FOX days, far from the glory of the original X-Men trilogy. And there’s the second stab at Fantastic Four, which was one of the worst superhero movies in recent memory.

As for DC, I guess you can explain each of them (and interestingly, there are no Zack Snyder movies on here, which I’m sure his fans love to see):

• The Flash, as I said, probably remains the biggest mystery, but has its combination of factors as to why audiences tuned out.
• Shazam 2 and Black Adam kind of killed each other, as they very obviously should have been one movie but The Rock’s ego would not allow that. Instead this entire corner of the DC universe got nuked and it feels like part of the reason Gunn was brought in, in order to make sure The Rock didn’t wrestle control of everything.
• The Suicide Squad was well-reviewed and liked by audiences, but it was both rated R and shared a practically identical name with the DCEU’s worst movie, which was confusing, so you can’t blame audiences for staying away.
• Wonder Woman 1984 may be the one we have to give a pass to, given that it was released same-day on HBO Max during the pandemic, and yet it was…also not good at all.

Strange times at DC, and we’ll see if the James Gunn/Superman Legacy era will start to turn this around.

The Flash Movie Trainwreck Reaches A New Low With NFTs

WB and DC are looking to Web3 and NFT nonsense to sell The Flash
By Kenneth Shepard
Published Yesterday

The Flash has been a disaster for DC and Warner Bros. The Ezra Miller-led superhero film is securing a record as one of the biggest box office flops in the business. There are a lot of factors that led us to that point, but Warner Bros. attempts to get any money out of the film before the DC cinematic universe reboots once more have reached a new low: the blockchain.

Warner Bros. Digital Collectibles, the company’s official NFT/Web3 branch, posted today that it’s rolling out The Flash Web3 Movie Experience, which is the first “new” movie to be released on WB’s blockchain nonsense service after it released similar “experiences’’ for older films like The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and the 1978 Superman film. The limited edition Flash experience includes weird interactive environments you can swipe around on your phone based on locations from the movie, as well as digital collectibles like cards and models. Packaged into the whole deal is a digital copy of the film, access to bonus features, and all the normal shit you’d expect from buying a movie through a digital service.

None of these things are inherently objectionable, but when it’s all tied into a manufactured scarcity based on a market that has already come and gone, it reeks of desperation to get any return on a movie that has bombed in the usual markets.

There are a lot of reasons for The Flash taking a nosedive. On top of Miller’s frequent controversies and actual crimes, DC has already announced it’s rebooting its film universe again under The Suicide Squad developer James Gunn, and is still releasing a movie in a defunct continuity. It also sounds like the movie is just not that spectacular, and fans have had a pretty good live-action Flash series for almost a decade. I think we’re just good on the scarlet speedster these days, and given everything else, people just didn’t show up. And I’d be very, very surprised if a Web3 experience changes that.

Someone in management being clueless enough to jump on NFTs now is still a bit of a surprise. Even with all the other questionable decisions.