Warning: for this editorial, I'll need you to be open-minded. I already know some of the comments that will be waiting for me in the comment section, so I've given a brief description of the director's past work, why they're good for the film, and their best films in which they can "steal" elements from and apply to them to their Flash movie.
6. Andrew Stanton
Stanton's biggest problem is that he has a visual eye that far exceeds the narrative of his films. And while Stanton normally solves that problem by utilizing scripts like
WALL*E to tell a story almost completely visually, he can sometimes do too much and make the mistake of trying to cram it into a film of epic proportions.
I'm in the "really liked
John Carter" boat; but I've never read the stories and I went in knowing almost nothing about the character or plot. The scope of the movie was far too much, but everything else was set-up appropriately, delicately and with intimate care. Give Stanton a man who only has to save one city and watch him play wonders with Flash. And you can expect some pretty funny scenes, too, I would expect. I enjoyed the
John Carter moment of attempting to adjust to the gravity of the planet, and I think that's something that could translate really well to Flash's outing.
5.
Spike Jonze
Jonze is definitely a love him/hate him director, but the majority of people I know love him. His films always tread into off-beat, sensational story-time, so for
The Flash I would merely ask that he keep the same movie he's showing off in the first act as he does in the second and third. His characters in
Being John Malkovich and
Adaptation. (both penned by the brilliant Charile Kaufman) have that odd-ball aloofness that keeps the energy of the movie going at an electric pace, and Jonze's ability to energize a scene could do wonders in
The Flash.
But it's his work in
Where the Wild Things Are (even though I despised the film) that makes me wonder just what he can do with Flash visually. I feel the visual aspect of Flash (because how can you film super-speed without looking too cheesy?) will take a high priority in the film, considering that's his only superpower (within that, I count speed-reading, etc. etc.)
4.
Martin Campbell
And here comes the Green Lantern Corps with their commentary. Let me start off my defense of Mr. Campbell by pointing out that his mistake is the same as Stanton's. He's not great at making films with super-scope. But give him a larger-than-life character and Campbell will do wonders with the intimate details. A lot of complaints with
Green Lantern are that the film wasn't big enough. It didn't dive into the galactic sense as much as it should have (though there were numerous script problems as well). But I'm not convinced that Martin would be the man for the job if GL were any bigger than it already is.
Campbell knows how to set up and respect a shot.
Casino Royale's effective opening scenes (Bond winning his "00" status and the parkour chase scene) are so effective because Campbell knows where to frame up and shoot. He never lingers too long and he throws all the energy he can into every shot. This would be
absolutely necessary for a Flash movie. Campbell respects the action on screen and keeps it flowing with static shots (as opposed to Marc Forster's
Quantum of Solace, which should have been renamed
I Gave My Toddler a Camera). Give the man who saved James Bond (twice) a shot at a hero with smaller scale and more fun!
3.
Michel Gondry
A visionary and effective director, Gondry's biggest mistake (but ironically enough, his best example for why he should direct a Flash movie) is directing a script of
The Green Hornet penned by Seth Rogen. Gondry is ingenious and inventive, but he's (like any great director) got to have a great script. But
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is nothing short of majestic, and film lovers will have a hard time resisting the brilliant
Be Kind Rewind. Give all the fun to Flash and watch Gondry roll out of Central City with a smile.
But there are some interesting shots in
The Green Hornet that can't be ignored. First, let's discuss the multi-cam scene splitting shot that involves numerous people passing on information in a camera that never stops rolling.
Imagine that following Flash as he searches all throughout Central City for bombs that have been placed in random buildings (a-la,
The New Frontier). That, and with Kato's distinctive action shots, Gondry could make an incredibly interesting movie.
2.
Duncan Jones
A fan favorite of these casts, Jones has already impressed with both
Moon and
Source Code, though it's his
Source Code work that brings up into the running for Flash. Jones utilizes slow motion only a few times in
Source Code, but it works beautifully just because of when he does it.
Jones knows how to pace a film and find the current of it, something necessary for the Flash movie especially. The only problem with Jones? His movies are too damn short.
1.
Brad Bird
I'll go ahead and tell you that beyond this sentence, there won't be any discussion on my part comparing Flash to Dash. But we've seen Bird work well with super speed (in animated form) and we were impressed by the kinetic energy he brought back to the
Mission Impossible franchise. I'm all up for seeing Flash scale buildings with Bird's sense of direction (and this means we could get a Flash movie in IMAX, as well).
But Bird also characterizes really well, even injecting a sense of humanity into Ethan Hunt that we didn't see until the last few scenes of
MI:4. But for more on that, you'll need to go check out
The Iron Giant and rethink you're entire life while destroying a box of tissues.