Two years ago, at a Time Warner investors meeting, Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara outlined a comic book film slate aimed at “doubling down on outstanding content, working with the best talent and maintaining the culture that makes Warner Bros. so great.”




Tsujihara announced that, in a massive expansion of the Studio’s DC Entertainment-branded content, Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema would release a slate of at least 10 movies – as well as stand-alone Batman and Superman films – from 2016 through 2020, that expand on the DC comics universe of characters:

• “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” directed by Zack Snyder (2016)
• “Suicide Squad,” directed by David Ayer (2016)
• “Wonder Woman,” starring Gal Gadot (2017)
• “Justice League Part One,” directed by Zack Snyder (2017)
• “The Flash,” starring Ezra Miller; since then Rick Famuyiwa has been hired to direct the film (2018)
• “Aquaman,” starring Jason Momoa (2018)
• “Shazam” (2019)
• “Justice League Part Two,” also directed by Zack Snyder (2019)
• “Cyborg,” starring Ray Fisher (2020)
• “Green Lantern” (2020)

Of note, given this blog’s specific interests, is of course the Cyborg movie, which will star Ray Fisher.

Cyborg made a very brief appearance in this year’s “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice,” serving as an intro to the character and to Fisher, an actor who’s a relative newcomer. Prior to his casting as Cyborg 2 years ago, his IMDB page listed just one short film. But he does have stage credits, including appearing in a production of William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth,” at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in 2008, and, most recently, starring as Muhammad Ali in the off-Broadway stage drama “Fetch Clay, Make Man” by Will Powers, at New York Theater Workshop, New York City.

Since then, he’s appeared in an episode of “The Astronaut Wives Club” on ABC, which lasted one season, airing in 2015. So his casting as Cyborg, a character that will apparently get his own movie is quite a leap, and should obviously increase his industry profile.

But before the 2020 release of that movie, following his brief appearance in “Dawn of Justice” this year, Cyborg/Fisher will also co-star in “Justice League” which is due in theaters in November 2017.

And, announced this evening by Variety, Cyborg/Fisher will also appear in Rick Famuyiwa’s “The Flash” superhero movie.

Warner has set a March 16, 2018 release date for that film which will star Ezra Miller as the title character, and Famuyiwa’s “Dope” co-star Kiersey Clemons in the female lead role as Iris West; a character that is currently being played by Candice Patton in the CW series based on the superhero.

No word at this time on how much Cyborg/Fisher will be used in “The Flash.”

Miller’s Flash, aka Barry Allen, was also introduced in a cameo appearance in “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and, also like Cyborg/Fisher, will appear in Justice League movie, which is now shooting.

Famuyiwa will direct “The Flash” from a script penned by Seth Grahame-Smith, based on a treatment by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.




It’s a project that’s been in the works for sometime, having swapped directors at least twice over the years.

But it’s a huge move for Famuyiwa, especially at a time when discussions are plenty about filmmakers of color and women helming superhero franchises. Some may not know Famuyiwa actually existed before “Dope.” The man has been around for about 15 years, making his feature film debut in 1999 with “The Wood” (the dramedy that starred Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones), and followed that up with the Taye Diggs/Sanaa Lathan romantic-comedy-drama “Brown Sugar” in 2002, and another comedy-drama-romance in “Our Family Wedding” in 2010, which starred America Ferrera, Forest Whitaker, and Lance Gross.

All of his films are readily accessible on various home video platforms.