So says the scriptwriter, which is fine, except he’s clearly seen the Green Lantern script and we haven’t, so that could mean anything…
But we presume he means that this will be quite a “serious” affair. That could be quite some task, considering that the super speedy superhero’s powers are, let’s be honest, inherently silly (have you ever seen superfast running on screen that wasn’t naff, apart from the Bionic series where they cheated and used slo-mo?).
Berlanti goes on explain: “You’re dealing with somebody who is already a crimefighter in a world of those kinds of criminals and that kind of murder and homicide. I find you talk a lot about different films when you’re working on a film, and we spend a lot more time talking about Se7en or The Silence of the Lambs as we construct that part of Barry’s world, then I thought when we got into it. It helps balance a guy in a red suit who runs really fast.”
Okay, we’re prepared to be convinced…
He continues: “With Green Lantern we used to say there’s a space opera component and then there’s the down-on-earth. In The Flash , there’s the sci-fi component and there’s the crime component and it’s fitting those two things together. The sci-fi thing, we obviously want to nail that and honor that and do that in a way that feels visceral and real and cool and probably more in the tone of The Matrix films or things like that.”
So there you have it. The Flash will be a bit like The Dark Knight , a bit like The Green Lantern , a bit like The Matrix , a bit like Se7en , a bit like The Silence Of The Lambs and possibly, perhaps, even a little bit like The Flash . Sounds one hell of a movie!
So, what do you think? Can superfast running ever look convincing, let alone serious? Know an example? Which director could take The Flash and turn it into Silence Of The Lambs meets The Matrix ?
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Fancy investigating the latest incarnation of The Flash in comic strip form to get you in the mood for the movie. Then you need The Flash: Rebirth
Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.
