Phil Lord and Chris Miller have not one but two superhero projects on their plate, with a big screen adaptation of The Flash on the way alongside a new animated Spider-Man movie. And according to Lord, the duo will be approaching both properties in the same way they usually work, by pitching them “a little bit to the side”.
“We’re trying to break a story,” said Lord of The Flash during an appearance on the Hippojuice podcast. “It’s interesting, because there’s a really popular TV show out there, and we’re trying to carve out space for the movie that’s apart from that. I think we’re doing alright.”
“I believe [our Flash] is going to be Barry Allen. It’s going to be its own thing — we’re more trying to stick with the cinematic universe. It really is its own thing, and kind of a stand-alone movie. We’re just trying to think of the best story. I think you guys will like it, it’s kind of a different take on superhero stuff.”
“We’re sort of juggling superheroes with the colour red in them,” continues Lord, in reference to Spider-Man. “We’re trying not to confuse their powers or anything, but it does get tricky. But it’s the same thing, is there a way to do one of these movies in a new way? That’s the exciting thing about it being animated, is it opens up a lot of different possibilities.”
“Chris and I like to carve out spaces where people will let us do what we want. So much of our careers are like, ‘oh, no one will bother us while we try to make a 21 Jump Street movie, because it’s such a crazy idea, no one’s going to know what to do with it.’ So we’re doing these things kind of like that. They’re part of these huge franchises, but kind of are off a little bit to the side, and that gives us a lot of creative freedom, and that’s the thing we love. Hopefully we won’t waste that!”
The Flash is expected to arrive in 2018, as is Sony’s animated Spider-Man movie. It promises to be quite the year for Hollywood’s most in-demand screenwriters…
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