The Hollywood Reporter
Andy Muschietti attends the red carpet promoting the 'The Flash' at the Warner Bros. Pictures Studio presentation during CinemaCon on April 25, 2023, in Las Vegas.
It’s official: Andy Muschietti is going to the Batcave.
Ahead of the release of his superhero movie The Flash, Muschietti has decided to keep his feet firmly in the land of DC.
Muschietti finalized a deal to direct The Brave and the Bold, the feature project that will introduce a new big-screen version of Batman, one that will fit into the expansive universe being developed by DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran.
The involvement has been whispered about for several weeks. Muschietti, who has been on the Flash press tour, has been coy about his connection. But a deal was finally closed this week, according to a source, very conveniently timed to the opening of his movie.
“We saw The Flash even before taking the reins at DC Studios, and knew we were in the hands of not only a visionary director but a massive DC fan,” Gunn and Safran said in a statement. “It’s a magnificent film – funny, emotional, thrilling – and Andy’s affinity and passion for these characters and this world just resonates through every frame. So, when it came time to find a director for The Brave and the Bold, there was really only one choice. Luckily, Andy said yes. Barbara signed on to produce with us and we were on our way. They’re an extraordinary team, and we couldn’t have better or more inspiring partners as we embark on this thrilling new adventure in the DCU.”
It is unclear if the project has a writer. According to sources, Christina Hodson, who wrote Muschietti’s Flash, was circling but decamped to work on a Fast and Furious movie. It is unknown when a writer would be hired, given the current screenwriters strike that has brought movie and TV development to a standstill in Hollywood.
Still, the dealmaking notches another director for Gunn and Safran’s DC roster; James Mangold is attached to direct a feature centered on horror hero Swamp Thing, while Gunn himself will helm Superman: Legacy.
In addition to a new Batman, Brave and the Bold will introduce Damian Wayne, a murderous tween raised by assassins who also happens to be the son Batman never knew he had. The feature is inspired by writer Grant Morrison’s Batman run that introduced Damian. “It’s a very strange father-and-son story,” Gunn told reporters in late January when announcing the movie.
Damian, co-created by artist Andy Kubert, is also the son of Talia al Ghul, and takes on the mantle of Robin and later becomes Batman in his own right.
Brave and the Bold is part of the first chapter of storytelling in Gunn and Safran’s DC Universe, with other film titles including Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Swamp Thing and The Authority. On the small screen, titles include The Lanterns, Waller and Paradise Lost.
Brave and the Bold will exist in the main DC Universe, while Robert Pattinson’s own Dark Knight iteration is branded by the new heads as a “DC Elseworlds story,” a monicker that allows DC to make movies set in alternate universes and outside the continuity that Gunn and Safran are working to establish. Pattinson has The Batman: Part II due out in 2025.
Muschietti has a bit of experience already with the Bat-family, as Flash features several incarnations of the cowled vigilante. Michael Keaton is reprising his Batman role from the 1989 and 1992 movies, while Ben Affleck is back after his appearances in the movies from Zack Snyder.
The Argentina-born director made his Hollywood debut in the horror field, directing the 2013 scary movie Mama. But it was his two-part adaptation of Stephen King’s It, released by Warner Bros. arm New Line in 2017 and 2019, that showed the director could handle thrills and chills, character, and big VFX climaxes.
The Flash has been on the receiving end of an extraordinary amount of hype prior to its June 16 debut, with Gunn and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav touting it as one of the best superhero movies of all time. Warners screened the movie at April’s CinemaCon, the convention for theater owners, where it was rapturously received.
Muschietti is repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
