Inside ‘The Flash’s’ box-office face-plant

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone curious if there’s a future for “The Flash.”

That’s because the DC Studios release, available this week on VOD, is coming off a box-office disappointment — not to mention a long and troubled journey to the big screen, as staff writer Josh Rottenberg writes in this week’s Catch up.

Also in Screen Gab No. 91, we get nostalgic for Disney Channel Original Movies with director Veronica Rodriguez and recommend two TV shows to stream this weekend. Want to be featured in a future newsletter? Pretend we’re at the water cooler and give us your review of a TV show or streaming movie you’ve loved. (Submissions should be approximately 100 to 150 words and sent to [email protected] with your name and location.)

ICYMI

Must-read stories you might have missed

(Patrick Hruby / Los Angeles Times)

With Hollywood on strike, Comic-Con is ‘back to basics.’ Here’s what to expect: The presence of top film and TV talent at San Diego Comic-Con will be massively reduced amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Here’s what will change — and what won’t.

In the underwater tragedy of Netflix’s ‘Deepest Breath,’ the appeal of the deep explained: Filmmaker Laura McGann explains how she made her stunning freediving documentary featuring Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan.

Jake Johnson is back in leisure suits and pinkie rings for ‘Minx’: ‘That is where I find Doug’: The actor discusses the second season of “Minx,” now on Starz, what kept him motivated in his early days in the industry and his film and podcast projects.

How summer blockbuster ‘Sound of Freedom’ became a battlefield in the culture war: With a controversial star, a subject conspiracy theorists love and a sensational box-office take, “Sound of Freedom” couldn’t help but stir up a fight.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Kirk Cousins in “Quarterback.”

(Netflix)

The NFL can carry as much drama as a Bravo reality show and “Quarterback” (Netflix) provides a compelling, if sanitized, peek inside the locker room. The eight-part series follows three quarterbacks throughout the 2022-2023 season — Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes, underrated Minnesota Vikings veteran Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons’ second chance starter Marcus Mariota — on the field and with their families. There’s a heady mix of inside-football geekdom (watching Mahomes rattle off the ridiculous names in the Chiefs’ playbook is a particular treat) and adorable children. What I wasn’t expecting? I’d like to join the Kirk Cousins fan club. I have a new appreciation for his toughness, gameplay and character off the field. We watch him sing, train his brain like something out of a college psych experiment and share his love of spending hours in a bookstore on his day off. Same, Kirk. Same. —Vanessa Franko

Issa Rae, from left, Kumail Nanjiani and Gina Prince-Bythewood in “Project Greenlight.”

(Jessica Perez / Max)

I’m already a fan of the work of Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani and Gina Prince-Bythewood, so I was plenty pumped that they united to reboot the HBO docuseries “Project Greenlight,” which has historically captured a male director’s journey in making his first feature film — a process previously shepherded by the likes of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The series’ first four seasons, spread over the period 2001-2015, were always more about the intricate, thorny process of moviemaking itself than about the specific movie being made. (Including, in Season 4, a controversy over onscreen comments Damon made to producer Effie Brown about diversity in Hollywood.) Refreshingly, “Project Greenlight: A New Generation” (Max), follows a woman director and features a more diverse panel of mentors, but that doesn’t make its 10 episodes any less satisfyingly cringeworthy a peek into this too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen industry. It will leave you with a deeper appreciation for the lightning-in-a-bottle collaborations that result in your favorite films. —Ashley Lee

Catch up

Everything you need to know about the film or TV series everyone’s talking about

Ezra Miller and Sasha Calle in “The Flash.”

(Warner Bros. / DC Comics)

By the time “The Flash” (VOD, multiple platforms) hit theaters on June 16, the long-anticipated showcase for the Scarlet Speedster was weighed down by enough baggage to slow the fleet-footed superhero to a jog. Months of headlines about star Ezra Miller’s off-screen troubles — including reports of erratic and sometimes violent behavior, multiple arrests and their self-described “complex mental health issues” — overshadowed the run-up to the film’s release, to the point that Warner Bros. reportedly considered shelving the film entirely. But the studio decided to press ahead, hoping early positive buzz out of CinemaCon and the enthusiasm of hardcore comic-book fans would carry the day, even as Miller was sidelined from the publicity tour. The result was a box-office face-plant, with “The Flash” barely limping over the $100-million mark.

While it may not be “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made,” as DC Studios co-chief James Gunn inadvisedly proclaimed in the run-up to its release, “The Flash” — which sees Miller’s Barry Allen traversing alternate realities and joining forces with a younger version of himself to save his mother (and the world) — has its charms. As Justin Chang wrote in his decidedly mixed review for The Times, Miller delivers a “witty, fully engaged, nimble-in-every-sense performance,” while director Andy Muschietti (“It”) brings “an exuberantly maximalist approach” to a character previously relegated to second-banana status in the DC pantheon. Sasha Calle makes a striking debut as Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl, and, for anyone looking for a nostalgia fix, Michael Keaton — the OG star of Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman” — returns to once again wear the Dark Knight’s cowl and scowl.

The combination of overheated hype and a troubled star may have spelled doom for “The Flash” at the box office. But with the film now available to stream, you can see for yourself from the comfort of your couch what all the fuss was — or, perhaps more accurately, wasn’t — about. —Josh Rottenberg

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Valentina Herrera, Darby Camp Camp, Alex Cooper Cohen and Emmy Liu-Wang in “The Slumber Party.”

(Curtis Baker / Disney)

It’s not just “High School Musical” obsessives who know the power of the Disney Channel Original Movie, or DCOM: The network’s tween-friendly interpretation of the made-for-TV movie, launched in its current form in the late 1990s, was part of my and my siblings’ lingua franca. (We used to call my kid sister Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.) Subsequent generations of young viewers may look back on the form with similar nostalgic goodwill, as Disney Channel still rolls out a handful of original movies a year, if not the turn-of-the-millenium peak of a dozen. Premiering July 27 on Disney Channel and the next day on Disney+, next up is “The Slumber Party,” about a group of girls whose experiments in sleepover hypnotism go wrong. Director Veronica Rodriguez stopped by Screen Gab to discuss DCOMs, sneaking in age-inappropriate slumber party movies and more. —Matt Brennan

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

I just watched the hilarious summer comedy “Joy Ride” at my local theater. It’s absolutely hilarious and has so much girl power. It truly is the first movie of its kind and it was so fun to be in a packed theater full of laughter again. EVERYONE should go see it!

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

I love re-watching movies that I watched growing up. Some of my favorite repeats [all streaming on Disney+] are “The Parent Trap” (with Lindsay Lohan, duh), “The Princess Diaries,” and “Freaky Friday” (obviously with Lindsay Lohan). Wait, am I obsessed with Lindsay Lohan? The TV shows that I am constantly rewatching are “Frasier” [Hulu, Paramount+] and “The Nanny” [Pluto, Tubi]. They make my heart happy.

For many of us who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s, the DCOM was a pop culture mainstay — sometimes, as in the case of “High School Musical” or “Halloweentown,” a bona fide phenomenon. What’s your favorite DCOM and why?

I was obsessed with DCOMs when I was younger. Who am I kidding? I still am today. I have way too many favorites, but my top faves [streaming on Disney+] are “Stepsister from Planet Weird,” “Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century,” “Rip Girls,” “Gotta Kick It Up” and “Smart House.”

The DCOM brand of feature films has enjoyed the longevity it has because it meets its target audience where they’re at. It’s one of the few brands that tries to authentically speak directly to its young audience with the message that their stories and their voices matter. They’re basically saying, “Hey, you’re 14 and we see you and we think you’re important, which is why our next movie is about a 14-year-old like you.” Stories about young people can be incredibly powerful and DCOMs have continued to show that over the years. And as soon as that particular generation that they’re speaking to matures, there’s always the next generation eager to see themselves on screen in the next DCOM.

Slumber parties are often an opportunity for kids to discover movies they would not have otherwise seen. (Maybe because their parents would not have allowed it.) What slumber party movie has stuck with you since childhood? What’s your memory of it?

I vividly remember watching “Ghost World,” [MGM+, Paramount+], “Legally Blonde” [Prime Video] and “Mean Girls” [Netflix, Paramount+] at slumber parties. My friends and I liked watching older girls do cool and funny things. And then I always wanted to show people the animated show “Daria” [Pluto, Paramount+] if I could. I thought I was so cool suggesting an MTV show.