THE FLASH Movie to Center Around Barry Allen; Will Be Similar to THE MATRIX in Tone

The screenwriter behind Warner Bros' Green Lantern and it's potential sequel, is also hard at work adapting another comic book character to the silver screen; The Flash. Find out what he has to say about bringing the hero to live-action cinema.

Martin Campbell's superhero space adventure, Green Lantern, is still close to ayear away from hitting theaters; but that's not stopping Warner Bros from taking the next step in production of their other comic book properties. Christopher Nolan is in the process of building the script for his next installment of the Batman film franchise, while he is also pursuing several in-demand directors to helm the Superman reboot. Though these three characters have tangible, live-action prospects, the studio is attempting to showcase several other fan favorite heroes in the near future; the first being The Flash.

During a recent interview with SuperHeroHype/ComingSoon.net, screenwriter Greg Berlanti (who's also involved with Green Lantern 2) shares his progress on the film's script, as well as the tone he and his team are attempting to display when The Flash hits theaters:

'Flash' as we're getting into it is interesting...Though Barry Allen was a little lighter in the comic, I think because of the nature that he was a CSI and moved in this world of crime before this stuff happened. I think it's tonally somewhere in between 'GL' and 'Dark Knight.' It's actually a little bit darker than when we were working on ('GL 2'), because you're dealing with somebody who is already a crimefighter in a world of those kinds of criminals and that kind of murder and homicide. I find you talk a lot about different films when you're working on a film, and we spend a lot more time talking about 'Se7en' or 'The Silence of the Lambs' as we construct that part of Barry's world, then I thought when we got into it. It helps balance a guy in a red suit who runs really fast.

"A third thing I'd throw at you is alternate dimensions, so it's true that we want to find the things that make it… With 'GL,' we used to say there's a space opera component and then there's the down on earth. In 'The Flash,' there's the sci-fi component and there's the crime component and it's fitting those two things together, and the sci-fi thing, we obviously want to nail that and honor that and do that in a way that feels visceral and real and cool and probably more in the tone of 'The Matrix" films or things like that. I always think of 'The Flash' stories where he met Jay Garrick and knows there was Earth Prime and things like that. There's an avenue for these films to broaden the DC Film Universe in that way, so that's the hope."

Berlanti, who has repeatedly been linked to direct The Flash, remain non-committal to that prospect. For the time being, he notes that the important thing is finalizing the story on paper:

"When we have the script together, I'll probably sit down with Warner Bros. and want to decide what's best for that movie. It's so hard when you're working on the material, the script too, because if I thought about it just as a director I would freak myself out but when I think about it just as a writer, we try so many different things. It's like, 'I don't even know how we're going to do that but what if we did this or what if we showed this?' It's more freeing and liberating so I haven't really thought beyond the script right now for it. "

Batman 3 and Superman: Man of Steel are tentatively scheduled for theatrical release in 2012; while Warner Bros is eying unspecified dates in 2013 for Green Lantern 2 and The Flash.