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234: Redoing my Life, The Flash 2015 pt.1
🕑 Added 2025-08-06 17:42:04 +0000 UTC“Jules, how are things?” I asked as I crossed the studio lot. Stardust owned the lot, and the final stretch of principal photography for The Thing was underway.
The movie had begun shooting back in April. A large chunk of scenes had been filmed both on the sound stages and in the icy outskirts of British Columbia; by the end of June we were down to the last few crucial sequences which were now being shot here.
Julie, my former PA and now an associate producer on The Thing greeted me with a smile. “It’s going well, and we’re still on schedule,” she said confidently. “If nothing major happens, we’ll wrap exactly on the target date.”
“Good,” I replied, falling into step beside her. Behind me, my new PA, Elizabeth Graves though I always called her Miss Graves—followed.
“How was Comic-Con?” Julie asked, glancing at Elizabeth. “Those are always exhausting. I swear I almost passed out when I was running around with Daniel in the last five years.”
Elizabeth smiled. “I actually enjoyed it. It’s… my kind of thing.”
I chuckled and cut in. “Miss Graves is a huge fan of all things sci-fi superheroes, comics. She’s practically a walking pop-culture encyclopedia.”
“Oh my God. Is he really calling you Miss Graves?” Julie said.
Elizabeth laughed softly. “It’s kinda funny, though. It does feel like he’s Lex Luthor and I’m… you know, Mercy Graves.”
“See? She gets it,” I said with mock triumph. “Perfect PA, Jules, she's already surpassed you.”
Julie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You two are ridiculous,” she muttered as we pushed through the heavy double doors of the soundstage.
The air inside was cooler, heavy with that familiar paint and ozone from the studio lights. Ahead of us stood the set: an intricately detailed outpost infirmary.
Today’s sequence was one I’d been looking forward to the Norris scene.
The crew was setting up the practical effects grotesque, hand-crafted, and stunningly detailed. The team had spent months perfecting the design: a monstrous hybrid of prosthetics, robotics, and animatronics. The transformation would be shot in pieces, capturing the shocking moment when Norris’s body splits open, the thing inside bursts forth, transforms, and attacks the crew.
There would be some CGI touch-ups in post, but very few just enough to enhance the scene. Otherwise, the effects team had done a fantastic job, and I felt I had gotten my money’s worth.
I watched as the crew cleared the set, giving the practical-effects team room to wheel in the rig. At one end was Michael Stuhlbarg’s upper body and face fully lifelike, blinking, twitching, animatronic. At the other, his torso gaped open in a gruesome split, exposing the Norris-Thing’s snapping jaws and writhing tendrils. It was horrifying, beautiful, and perfect.
The team maneuvered the rig into place and settled it on the metal gurney at center stage.
“Julian,” I called, spotting the director behind a bank of monitors.
He turned at the sound of my voice and smiled as we shook hands.
“Daniel,” he said. “Everything’s on schedule.”
I nodded. “That’s what I keep hearing.”
Behind us, the animatronic was still being tweaked; one of the VFX leads knelt under the torso, checking the wiring inside the creature’s chest cavity. Footsteps approached from the far side of the stage.
“Bryan, Bob, Wyatt,” I said, smiling as the three of them walked over each already in costume.
“Haven’t seen you around since last month, Daniel,” Bryan said, shaking my hand.
He was right. After the shoot returned from Canada I’d only stopped by briefly; between Comic-Con, The Flash press, and the Storm of Swords release, I’d been everywhere and nowhere.
“He’s a busy man, Cranston,” Bob said with a grin.
“Mr. Adler,” Wyatt added, a touch formally.
“Come on, Wyatt,” I laughed. “I told you call me Daniel. We’ve known each other long enough.”
Bryan and Bob were juggling packed schedules Bryan would jump straight from The Thing to Batman 3 and another drama, while Bob had Better Call Saul starting just weeks after wrap. The fact that it all lined up was a miracle.
We lingered by the monitors, chatting. Bryan launched into a tale from the set of 12 Angry Men; Bob, Bryan, and Michael, absent in person but present in animatronic form on the gurney, had all been part of that project, one of the many reasons I’d brought them onto this film.
Soon Julian’s voice cut through the chatter: “All right, people lets get this done!”
Winston Duke, Ben Foster, and Anton Yelchin arrived, and the cast ran through the scene one more time.
Bryan’s character Copper was about to meet his end. During rehearsal everyone was joking around. Bryan, ever the showman, launched into a ridiculously dramatic death, complete with over-the-top screams as he played around near the animatronic Thing.
“I might actually keep that,” Julian said with a grin seeing Bryan's performance.
It wasn’t all fun and games, though. When they got serious, they were serious. These were seasoned professionals, and I realized the shoot was running so smoothly because they worked together like a well-oiled machine.
I saw that in action once the cameras rolled—and I was surprised by how fast it all went. Standing beside Julian I watched it all unfold.
Bryan leaned over Norris’s body, Michael Stuhlbarg’s stunning prosthetic double, preparing the defibrillator.
“Clear.”
The paddles hit the chest.
The stomach split open like a bear trap.
Bryan screamed and was yanked downward, blood and foam erupting as the Norris-Thing clamped shut. Controlled chaos followed.
Hours passed. They shot from every angle Wyatt’s MacReady torching the Thing with a flamethrower, everyone’s horrified reactions were shot. It was an incredibly difficult sequence to pull off with practical effects, yet they made it look easy.
Finally, just after midnight, Julian called “Cut!” on the last take.
Everyone crowded around a monitor to watch the footage. Even raw and unfinished, it looked fantastic.
“Looks like I die pretty well,” Cranston quipped.
Julian caught my eye and gave a quick thumbs-up. Applause broke out as he okayed the scene.
The Thing was on track exactly what I wanted. With a little luck and a whole lot of marketing,in less than year this film could make me a lot of money.
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r/DCU
Posted by u/Scarlter87
My Thoughts on The Flash and Grant Gustin After Watching the Last Trailer
Okay, I’ll admit it when they first announced Grant Gustin as the Flash, I wasn’t happy. I thought it was one of Adler’s worst casting decisions to go with a no-name guy like him.
But then I saw the latest trailer. And damn… it clicked. The vibe, the tone but especially that one little moment with Iris West in the clip released two days ago, where she’s pestering Barry at work, asking for info on a murder case, their chemistry was great. For the first time, Grant felt like Barry to me.
I think watching the full movie will seal the deal completely, but I had to eat some of my words here. Adler might have been right again.
Top Comments:
u/QuantumKoala42
I’m still not fully convinced about Grant either, but yeah, everything else in the trailers has been great so far.
u/PixelMoth23
NGL, I’m skipping this one. The race change for Iris was so unnecessary. Feels like forced diversity for no reason.
u/ShrimpOverlord9 Replying to u/PixelMoth23
Bro, it literally doesn’t matter. Nathalie Emmanuel looks amazing especially in that clip and I think she’ll be great in the movie. You just want an excuse to complain.
u/PixelMoth23 Replying to u/ShrimpOverlord9
I just want comic accuracy. If they’re already doing this and with the rumors about Batman 3 looking for an African-American Catwoman I might skip that one too.
u/BurritoBlaster77 Replying to u/PixelMoth23
You don’t need to announce that to us.
u/Yeezard
Okay but like… can we talk about who Antony Starr is playing?? Harrison Wells?? That’s DEFINITELY Reverse Flash, right?
u/Ceninsider Replying to u/Yeezard
I’ve been thinking that too, but I’m not totally sure. All the trailers and marketing have focused on the Rogues Captain Cold, Heat Wave. If Thawne were in it, I feel like they’d tease something.
u/Yeezard Replying to u/Ceninsider
I mean… come on. Casting Antony Starr who looks like the perfect guy to play Thawne as a guy named Harrison Wells? That’s not a coincidence. It’s gotta be him. They’re just hiding the big reveal, that’s all.
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Edgar Wright Opens Up About Marvel Exit and Finding Creative Freedom With DC’s The Flash
With only a week to go until the release of Edgar Wright’s The Flash, the acclaimed filmmaker has finally opened up about his turbulent experience with Marvel Studios and how working with DC Studios and creative head Daniel Adler gave him the freedom he once hoped for.
In a candid interview with Empire, Wright didn’t shy away from discussing his 2012 exit from Marvel’s Ant-Man, a project he had been attached to for nearly five years.
“I wanted to make a Marvel movie,” Wright said, “but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie.”
The Shaun of the Dead director revealed that he had spent almost half a decade developing Ant-Man under Marvel Studios, only to part ways due to creative differences just months before filming was set to begin.
“It was disappointing, no doubt,” Wright admitted. “What I regret most is promoting the movie for so long, getting audiences excited for something I didn’t end up making. It’s a tough lesson.”
While Wright maintained a professional tone toward Marvel, he acknowledged that the studio’s increasing focus on tightly interconnected franchise storytelling ultimately made his vision incompatible.
“Marvel was moving toward this massive interconnected universe, and that’s totally fine. But the approach I usually take just didn’t quite fit that mold,” he explained.
When asked how things differed at DC Studios, Wright lit up.
“There’s a lot more freedom,” he said. “Daniel [Adler] is also doing a shared universe, yes, but his only requests during the process were mostly notes on some worldbuilding background stuff and even that was collaborative. It never felt like I was being shoehorned into a story I didn’t want to tell.”
Wright said it was Adler’s producer sensibility and shared creative wavelength that convinced him to step back into the superhero genre for The Flash.
“Honestly, I never thought I’d attempt another superhero film after Ant-Man. But then Daniel came to me with The Flash, and it wasn’t just, ‘Here’s a character, here’s a script, make it work.’ It was: ‘Here’s a character, what do you see in him? Let’s build it together.’ That kind of trust and room to breathe that’s rare.”
Though The Flash is clearly part of DC’s larger cinematic universe, Wright said the creative process never felt stifling.
“I could still do my own style. The humor, the rhythm, the visual language it’s mine. And when Daniel or anyone at DC had notes, they made the film better. We weren’t clashing; we were always in sync.”
The Flash, starring Grant Gustin, Nathalie Emmanuel, Antony Starr, and Wentworth Miller, races into theaters later this month. With early buzz already highlighting Wright’s signature flair and emotional storytelling, fans may finally see what happens when a superhero story truly gets the Edgar Wright treatment on his own terms.
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The Flash Tracking for Lowest Opening in DCU: Projections Peg Debut at $60 Million
Despite the DCU’s popularity in the short time it has existed, The Flash is currently projected to open significantly lower than its cinematic counterparts. According to updated tracking data from multiple industry sources, the film is expected to debut with approximately $60 million domestically on its opening weekend.
While a $60M debut would be considered solid for many films, it marks a notable dip in the context of the DCU, which has consistently delivered higher-grossing opening weekends.
For comparison, here are the domestic opening weekend numbers for other DCU releases:
Superman (2014) – $232 million
The Dark Knight (2015) – $196 million
The Batman (2013) – $190 million
Wonder Woman (2014) – $90 million
That places The Flash at the bottom of the pack even below Wonder Woman, which previously held the record for the lowest opening in the franchise due to its clash with Ironman 3.
Sources point to several contributing factors behind the modest projections:
Lesser-known lead and hero: While Grant Gustin has been acting for years, The Flash marks his first major film role. His most recognizable role prior to this was on Glee, which, while popular, doesn’t carry the same blockbuster cachet. The Flash is also less popular than big names like Superman and Batman.
Crowded release window: The film is sandwiched between major releases, including Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which opens just two weeks later, along with other big studio titles.
Muted marketing push: Insiders also note that although The Flash received a promotional boost in the final month, it lacked the massive, multi-platform blitz that helped power Superman and The Dark Knight to their massive openings.
Despite the lower projections, DC Studios reportedly isn't concerned. With strong early reviews praising Edgar Wright’s direction, the film’s humor, and emotional depth, The Flash could benefit from positive word of mouth and pick up momentum in the weeks following its release.
Comments
June Soriano
Tftc!
Cinema Man
Absolute Cinema and I loved this bit "NGL, I’m skipping this one. The race change for Iris was so unnecessary. Feels like forced diversity for no reason." if that's your biggest concern for something you claim to love without even actual criticism then that's sad smh
