Director Andy Muschietti has revealed that the original cut for The Lightning was four hours long.
Director Andy Muschietti has revealed that the original cut for The Lightning was four hours long.
Ezra Miller stars as Barry Allen/The Flash in the new DC Extended Universe superhero movie. “Worlds collide as Flash uses his superpowers to travel back in time and alter the events of the past,” reads the film’s synopsis. “When his attempt to save his family inadvertently changes the future, he is drawn into a reality where General Zod has returned and threatens annihilation. With no other superheroes to turn to, Flash is determined to bring a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian – if not the one he’s looking for.”
The official running time is 2 hours and 24 minutes. However, Muschietti revealed that his montage cut was four hours long. When asked if the world would ever see the 4-hour version the way fans ended up seeing the 4-hour version of Justice League, he replied: he said“Maybe. I’m definitely happier with this version than the four-hour version. You get excited, you start improvising with the actors, and suddenly you have a scene that has doubled the length of the script.”
He describes how the film lasted between five and three hours at various stages of post-production. “Then you have to face the editing and say, ‘Okay, we’ve got to cut an hour and a half out of this movie. How will it happen?’ After six months it’s fun. It’s all chaos in the beginning and everything you start is wrong in hindsight because it’s trial and error. You try many things.”
Did ‘The Flash’ bomb the box office in its opening weekend?
The Flash deserves it $55 million on the opening weekend domestically, which is below forecasts. The film cost $200 million to produce. For comparison, the DCEU film Black Adam grossed $67 million in its opening weekend and ended up being a hit at the box office.