Affleck Passed on Directing The Flash Movie Flashpoint?

Warner Bros. is really trying to get the DCEU on the right track after the disappointment ofJustice League. Part of that is finally getting their soloFlashmovie going, which is going to adapt theFlashpointstoryline from the comics. The studio has finally locked down directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein for the gig, but it sounds like they wanted a bigger name forFlashpoint. Reportedly, they wantedBen Affleckto direct it.

The news comes from The Tracking Board’s Jeff Sneider. According to him, Warner Bros. was “courting” Ben Affleck to direct theFlashpointmovie behind-the-scenes. He is said to have been offered the movie, but he ultimately passed on it, which led to them having to look elsewhere. Here’s what Sneider had to say about it in a recent post to his personal Twitter account.

“Warner Bros. had been courting none other than Ben Affleck to direct The Flash, but he ultimately passed on the gig, and the studio didn’t want to wait for Robert Zemeckis.”

This also further confirms that Warner Bros. was very interested in gettingBack to the Future director Robert Zemeckison board, which we’ve been hearing for quite some time. In both cases, with Zemeckis and with Ben Affleck, it’s worth noting that they are very accomplished directors with a proven track-record of being able to deliver a hit. Both directors have misses on their resume, but they’re top-tier directors. That’s not to say thatJohn Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldsteinaren’t accomplished in their own right, but in terms of directing, they’re not on the same level. At least not yet.

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein previously directed theVacationremake and they also directed the upcoming comedyGame Night. However, as far as writing credits go, they wroteSpider-Man: Homecoming, which was a huge hit for Sony and Marvel Studios. It also seems like, given their sensibilities and looking at how Ezra Miller’s Flash was presented inJustice League, Warner Bros. could be going for more of a comedic tone withFlashpoint.

It’s also interesting because we keep hearing about Ben Affleck trying to gracefully exit the DCEU as Batman, which could be why he passed on directingThe Flash movie. He was also originally supposed to directThe Batman, which didn’t come to pass either, asWar for the Planet of the Apesdirector Matt Reeves has been hired to take on that task. And it increasingly sounds like Affleck won’t even be starring in that movie as theCaped Crusader, but that’s still up in the air.

In any case,Flashpointis moving forward. Even if it didn’t pan out, it sounds like Warner Bros. is still eager, or at least was eager, to make Affleck part of the future of DC Films, either in front of or behind the camera. You can check outJeff Sneider’s Twitterpost for yourself below.