DC's "The Flash" Movie loses its Director

As DC's Cinematic Universe has been set up by Batman v. Superman, and will continue to expand with upcoming projects such as Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman, Warner Bros. has been making many different changes to their universe and future projects, one of them has come for the anticipated debut standalone for The Flash, as the film has just lost its project.

Planned to be released in March 2018, the Flash project had already signed on actor Ezra Miller (Perks of Being a Wallflower) as the scarlet speedster himself, and hired Seth Grahme-Smith as both writer and director of the project.  However, while Miller will remain in the lead, as he had already appeared in Batman v Superman and will again in Justice League Part 1, THR has reported that Smith has officially left the project, citing "creative differences" between the studio and the director.  The project has lost the director and will seek to replace the role, but no official word has been given.

Grahame-Smith is fairly well-known for his work as an author, taking traditional stories and putting a comedic horror-inspired spin on them, leading his past work — which includes Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, as well as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — straight to the big screen.  However, the writer has not made his official big screen directorial debut, and will have to wait even longer.  Still, Ghrame-Smith will still be credited for writing the script, which was based on a treatment from Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie).

In my opinion, this is something that has been kind of blown out of proportion.  Yes, losing a director can be a big setback to some projects, these are not uncommon for most films, especially for Superhero films.  Just last year, Patty Jenkins was brought onto Wonder Woman to take over the project as director, Edgar Wright left Ant Man because of creative differences between them and the studio, which led to the hiring of Peyton Reed, and Thor 2 lost its original director, who was Patty Jenkins, because of differences.  

Changing directors is nothing new for films, as plans often change for films.  Coming from someone who absolutely loved Man of Steel and liked Batman v. Superman (understanding much of the criticism), the DCEU needs to step up in terms of talent and bring in new talent to change things up.  Ghramme-Smith, despite having some writing experience, has never directed a feature blockbuster, and the works he has done have been fairly mixed to negative.  With so much riding on this property and universe, and Warner Bros. trying to make up for negative reactions to Batman v. Superman, it would make sense to change up if things weren't working, and, for all we know, they could have several replacements in mind as we speak.  And with a year before filming begins, there is plenty of time to find a replacement.

The Flash is still slated to come out on March 16, 2018.