Tom Cruise Has Seen ‘The Flash’ … and He Loved It (Exclusive)

 A conversation with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav led to a private screening for Cruise at his Beverly Hills home.

The upcoming superhero movie The Flash has been done and locked for several months now as it awaits its June 16 release. It has many fans inside the studio, including new DC co-head James Gunn, who called it “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.”Now, it has a fan outside the studio walls: actor, superstar and cinema-saver Tom Cruise.Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Cruise has seen the movie and loved it so much that he cold-called the movie’s director, Andy Muschietti, to rave about it.

In late February, according to several sources, Cruise had a meeting with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, during which the mogul mentioned how great the movie was. Cruise, curiosity piqued, then asked to see it. Zaslav acquiesced to the request, and a copy of the movie was sent over to Cruise.

But, as an insider says, this was no casual messengering. A Warners employee brought the movie to Cruise’s home in Beverly Hills and stayed until the actor finished watching The Flash. It is unclear on what format Cruise watched it, whether it was digital or film. When Cruise finished, the movie was given back to the messenger, who returned it to the studio.

Cruise was so taken by what he saw that soon after, he reached out to Muschietti. It was a call out of the blue for the director. Cruise is said to have raved about the movie, saying something to the effect that Flash is “everything you want in a movie” and “this is the kind of movie we need now,” according to insiders.

Cruise has emerged as a kind of cinema and theater booster in recent times. “You saved Hollywood’s ass, and you might have saved theatrical distribution,” Steven Spielberg told the actor in an exchange at the Academy Luncheon that was caught on video and went viral. He was referring to Cruise’s push to keep Top Gun: Maverick in theaters and not on streaming and helping not only to push that movie to a $1.49 billion gross but also help spark a moviegoing revival last spring and summer.