The Flash: Casting Call

Patrick Wilson as Barry Allen...

Why He’s Perfect: If you’re not au fait with DC’s pacey superhero, here’s a quick primer. There have been several incarnations of The Flash in the comic books, but writer Greg Berlanti has confirmed that the movie will focus on Barry Allen, a CSI -style police scientist who finds himself landed with lightning-speed after a lightning bolt shatters a case full of chemicals over him.

Personality-wise Barry is fairly shy, a bit nerdy but overwhelmingly decent. Not only does Patrick Wilson look the part both facially and physically, but his performance in Watchmen showed he can balance shy vulnerability with some serious arse-kicking! Sure it would be a second superhero for him, but since Watchmen isn’t about to become a franchise, we don’t really see a problem.

Essential Scene: Maybe Marvel could loan out Nick Fury just this once. Wilson’s sparring with Sam Jackson was brilliant in Lakeview Terrace …

But if Wilson can't do it...

Bradley Cooper as Barry Allen...

Why He’s Perfect: Hang on a minute, didn’t we just say Barry needs to be shy and nerdy? So how does that fit with lantern-jawed, wisecracking smoothie Bradley Cooper then? Well, even though he’s become known for playing the fast-talking smart-guy in The Hangover and The A-Team , Cooper’s turn as in Alias as all-round nice-guy Will Tippin shows he can do more than just quips.

Factor in his action experience, and the fact that he was also in the running for Green Lantern before it went to Ryan Reynolds, and a role as the next big superhero surely beckons.

Essential Scene: A scene in which Allen passes up the opportunity to hit the boozer with his fellow coppers in favour of returning to his work. Just to remind everyone this isn’t The Hangover with superpowers.

But if Cooper can't do it...

Ryan Gosling as Barry Allen...

Why He’s Perfect: Berlanti has been talking up the detective aspect of the role recently, saying, “we spend a lot more time talking about Se7en or The Silence of the Lambs as we construct that part of Barry’s world.” Sounds a little dark for a film that’s essentially about a man who can run fast, but if they do go down this route, Ryan Gosling has the acting chops to juggle “driven forensic specialist” with “costumed hero”.

There’s a certain seriousness about Gosling that would fit a less cartoonish treatment of The Flash , although as Lars And The Real Girl showed, he’s an able comic performer as well.

Essential Scene: A tearful, rain-soaked clinch with love of his life Iris. Just to pull in the Notebook crowd…

But if Gosling can't do it...

John Krasinski as Barry Allen...

Why He’s Perfect: Now we know we put him forward for Superman the other week (and we still think he’dmake a good Clark Kent), but Krasinski should also be considered for The Flash . We don’t care how much Berlanti waffles on about making it “dark” or “edgy”, if most of the action revolves around super-speed, some of it will have to be played for laughs. The world of The Flash isn’t cast in the perennial gloom of Gotham, and treating it as such is going to fall flat once the sprinting begins.

Krasinski can do the funnies in his sleep, but he’s also got that decency and likeability essential for a good Barry Allen. The fanboys might not be keen on him, but he’s got the physical stature to play a superhero, and The Flash might just be the perfect fit.

Essential Scene: Barry tells his obnoxious boss where he can stick his job, ditching his desk for an exciting new life in spandex.

But if Krasinski can't do it...

Neil Patrick Harris as Barry Allen...

Why He’s Perfect: Have we gone stark, raving mad? Doogie Howser MD as a musclebound crime-fighter? Well hear us out a minute, as its not actually that far-fetched. Harris has already supplied the voice of The Flash in 2008’s Justice League: The New Frontier , and his name has been linked to the live-action movie in fevered web-rumour since last year.

And why shouldn’t he do it? He’s got the look (albeit at the higher end of the age range) and the comedic talents to bring a light-hearted spin to one of DCs more Technicolor superheroes. It would be leftfield casting certainly, but we’d go and see it, wouldn’t you?

Essential Scene: After a particularly bruising encounter with villainous cabal The Rogues, Allen is admitted to hospital with some pretty serious wounds. Imagine his surprise to find himself treated by a precocious 16-year old! Cue a mass walkout at Comic-Con.

Amy Adams as Iris West...

Why She’s Perfect: Like Lois Lane, Iris is a news reporter, in this case for Central City’s Picture News. So we’re looking for someone intelligent, tenacious and ideally redheaded. Amy Adams ticks all of those boxes nicely, and also has a pure and innocent quality about her that would fit with Allen’s straight-as-an-arrow persona.

In Doubt she showed she can balance steely determination, with doe-eyed vulnerability, which always goes down well in a superhero’s love interest.

Essential Scene: Iris gets the wrong end of the stick about a high-profile case of clerical abuse, outing the wrong man and losing her job in the process.

But if Adams can't do it...

Anna Kendrick as Iris West...

Why She’s Perfect: We don’t want an Iris whose just window dressing (think Kate Bosworth as Lois), we want a credible heroine with a bit of something about her. Anyone who can give George Clooney the runaround up on screen, clearly has something about them, and Kendrick could more than hold her own next to any of our picks for The Flash.

Criminally underused in the Twilight Saga , she’d bring a formidable intelligence to proceedings, and she looks the part as well. She’s very much on-par with Amy Adams on our wish-list for this one…

Essential Scene: We’d like to see her paired with Bradley Cooper, so she could give him a thorough dressing down for spending too much time running around. If she can browbeat Clooney, she can do the same to the Faceman.

But if Kendrick can't do it...

Emma Stone as Iris West...

Why She’s Perfect: It looks as though this one could be academic, as she may well end up playing Mary-Jane Watson in the Spiderman reboot, but if she doesn’t, she’d make a decent Iris West.

Feisty is the word we’d most readily associate with Miss Stone, which is pretty much the key attribute needed in a plausible news reporter. And as we saw in Zombieland , she can handle herself as well, which is pretty handy when your boyfriend has made an enemy of every scumbag in the city!

Essential Scene: Barry catches Iris casting a wistful glance at an eight-legged beastie he’s trapped under a glass…

But if Stone can't do it...

Christina Ricci as Iris West...

Why She’s Perfect: A bit more out there this one, but we don’t see half as much of Christina Ricci as we’d like in mainstream fare, and can see her putting a bit of a spin on a traditionally straight-laced character.

For one thing, she’d bring more sex-appeal to the part than the other actresses mentioned, she’d be an intimidating journo, and we’ve mentioned before, we like the idea of an Iris who could push Barry around a bit. This one almost certainly isn’t going to happen (even if DC were happy to go this leftfield, its unlikely that The Flash would fit with Christina’s indie sensibilities) but we can dream…

Essential Scene: Iris is captured by the rogues and left chained to a radiator in her underwear. What? Did noone else see Black Snake Moan ?

Jeremy Piven as Captain Cold...

Why He’s Perfect: The leader of the villain collective known as The Rogues, and a surprisingly principled one at that, forbidding the use of drugs and punishing his underlings for excessive violence. Usually the punishment involves more violence, but there you go. The name comes from the freeze rays he uses as weapons.

We’d like to see Jeremy Piven channel his sneer and sarcasm into a fully blown villain. Plus, whoever keeps The Rogues in check has to be blessed with charisma to spare, a quality Piven has in spades. He’s also done a bit of voice work for the animated Justice League TV show, so he should know his way around the territory.

Essential Scene: The Captain reduces one of his hardened henchmen to tears with a volley of withering sarcasm. And then freezes him.

But if Piven can't do it...

Paul Giamatti as Captain Cold...

Why He’s Perfect: Some might doubt whether he’s got the physical stature to play a truly menacing villain. Surely he’s too cuddly and crumpled by half? Well, anyone who’s seen Shoot ‘Em Up will know different, with Giamatti cranking the hysterics into overdrive as Clive Owen’s maniacal adversary.

We’d like to see him rein it in a bit from that performance, but he’s certainly got “diabolical” in his locker. It’s worth remembering that Captain Cold isn’t a super-being, just a criminal king-pin with some fairly nifty weaponry. Giamatti is definitely up to the task.

Essential Scene: A scene in which he confronts two huge goons and turns them into human icicles. “Good things come in small packages” he quips as the audience groans.

But if Giamatti can't do it...

Val Kilmer as Captain Cold...

Why He’s Perfect: We’d like to see an elder statesman give the role some real heavyweight clout, and we’re hard pushed to envisage a piece of stunt-casting more spectacular than this.

He’d need to get himself down the gym (old Val has ballooned somewhat in recent years), but he’d been an inspired choice as a supervillain. He’s got the deadpan wit down pat (see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for details) and he’d inject a welcome degree of weirdness into proceedings. Plus it would give him a chance to make it up to us for Batman Forever .

Essential Scene: Cloaked in shadow for the first five minutes of the scene, he hands out instructions to his goons before emerging from the darkness to reveal he is in fact Val Kilmer. Even if the studio confirmed him, we wouldn’t believe it until we saw it.

Jeremy Renner as Heat Wave...

Why He’s Perfect: An arson-obsessed nutjob packing a pair of gun-sized flamethrowers, Heat Wave would provide a nice counterpoint to Captain Cold. We’d need someone who can do unhinged convincingly, so who better than Jeremy Renner?

Having progressed from wreckless in The Hurt Locker to psychotic in The Town , Renner does barely-contained rage like nobody else around, but also has the wit to lighten things up before they get too heavy. Sign him up!

Essential Scene: A flashback in which we see him burn his parents’ house to the ground. Unless they want to make him into a cartoonish character, it needs to be in there.

But if Renner can't do it...

Tom Hardy as Heat Wave...

Why He’s Perfect: A more physical presence than Renner, Hardy is more than robust enough to make for a bruising villain. Plus as we saw in Inception , he can be charm personified when he wants to be, crucial if this is not to be another two-dimensional bad-guy.

He was absolutely terrifying in Bronson . If he can channel even half of that intensity for Heat Wave, we could have a genuinely disturbing villain on our hands. He might sell a few tickets to the female contingent as well…

Essential Scene: A fist-fight with a Flash still coming to terms with his powers, in which he knocks seven bells out of our hero.

Michael Clarke Duncan as Gorilla Grodd...

Why He’s Perfect: A giant, telepathic gorilla, hailing from the imaginatively named Gorilla Town...putting Grodd in the movie would be bold in the extreme, but given his stature as one of Barry Allen’s key nemeses, it wouldn’t be out of the question.

Presumably he’d have to be a CGI creation, so we’ll call on Michael Clarke Duncan with his Planet of the Apes pedigree to do another spot of monkeying around. In fairness he’s got the perfect voice for the character, with a booming laugh that could strip paint, so if anyone could make it work, he could.

Essential Scene: Grodd stumbles around trying to work out where he is, only to spot the Statue of Liberty and fall to his knees wailing.