‘The Flash’ Movie Updates: Rick Famuwiya Signs on to Direct Ezra Miller for Warner Bros.’ Big-Screen Adaptation Following Seth Grahame-Smith’s Exit

‘The Flash’ officially signs Rick Famuwiya as director in replacement of Seth Grahame-Smith, who exited the project last April. Famuwiya is set to direct Ezra Miller, who will star as Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash in the theatrical adaptation intended as part of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).

According to Deadline, Warner Bros. has signed Rick Famuwiya to direct the upcoming addition to the DCEU featuring Miller as the titular superhero. The Nigerian-American filmmaker received critical acclaim for his work on several full-feature films including 1999’s ‘The Wood’, 2002’s ‘Brown Sugar’ and 2015’s ‘Dope’. He also directed ‘Confirmation’, an HBO original film starring Kerry Washington as Anita Hill and Wendell Pierce as Clarence Thomas, for which he is receiving strong Emmy-season buzz.

Seth Grahame-Smith was originally poised to helm the film but later backed out of the project due to creative differences with the studio, according to Vanity Fair. It was set to be Grahame-Smith’s directorial debut. However, he did pen the new film’s script, which would still be used despite his absence.

The author, screenwriter, and producer is best known for penning ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ and ‘Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter’. He also wrote the script for Tim Burton’s ‘Dark Shadows’ and helped finalize the script for Josh Trank’s 2015 release ‘Fantastic Four’. He is set to produce the ‘Gremlins’ and ‘It’ reboots.

Meanwhile, Miller is set to play Barry Allen in the big-screen adaptation of the popular DC comics character. Grant Gustin, who plays “the fastest man alive” in The CW’s television series, will not be reprising his role for the film. Miller was already introduced as The Flash in Zack Snyder’s ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ ahead of the character’s standalone film scheduled for 2018.

The 23-year old actor gained international attention after starring in films such as ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’, ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ and ‘Trainwreck’. He will also appear in the Harry Potter cinematic spin-off ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them’ as well as DC’s upcoming ‘Justice League Part One’.

Miller’s star quality may prove beneficial to future films in the DCEU after Warner Bros. struggled with the underperformance of ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’. Although the film did fairly well at the box office, it essentially panned with critics and did not match up to profit expectations. According to Box Office Mojo, Snyder’s film grossed $871.9 million worldwide against a $250 million budget.

The studio is expecting to compete with Marvel’s theatrical line-up with future releases such as ‘Suicide Squad’, ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘Aquaman’ and ‘Green Lantern Corps’. So far, Marvel has been tough competition with blockbuster releases such as ‘Captain America: Civil War’, which managed to earn $1.1 billion worldwide with the same $250 million budget.

‘The Flash’ is an upcoming superhero film based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It is scheduled to be released in U.S. theaters on March 16, 2018.