When it was first announced that Batman would play a major role in theMan of Steelfollow-upBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, audiences reasonably assumed that Warner Bros. would be forging ahead with a new iteration of the character despite the fact thatChristopher Nolanhad only just wrapped up his take on Batman withThe Dark Knight Rises. Batman is one of the most iconic characters in pop culture history, so obviously Warner Bros. wasn’t just going to sit on that character forever—and then with the casting ofBen Affleckas Batman/Bruce Wayne things got even more interesting.
Rumors swirled for some time that Affleck may or may not be directinghis ownBatmanmovieas part of the DC Extended Universe, and confirmationfinally came earlier this yearalong with the news that Affleck is working on the script with DC Films co-headGeoff Johns. But when, exactly, can we expect this newBatmanmovie to be in theaters?
When Collider’s own Steve Weintraub was on the set ofJustice Leaguelast week along with a group of reporters, Affleck was asked about the status of saidBatmanmovie, and he gave a promising update:
“I think they have a date for it. Although, I don’t know if I would necessarily be able to make that date because I don’t have a script that’s ready yet. So that’s my—my timetable is I’m not going to make a movie until there’s a script that I think is good because I’ve been on the end of the things when you make movies when you have a script that’s not good yet and it doesn’t pan out.” [laughs]
Affleck is well aware not only of the iconography of the character but also the danger of rushing into production on blockbusters to meet a release date, and the Oscar-winningArgofilmmaker is taking special care into ensuring that thisBatmanis the best version of the film he could possibly make:
“I have a script, we’re still working on it, and I’m not happy enough with it yet to actually go out there and make a Batman movie, for which I have the highest of standards, I would say. That’s something that would have to pass a very high bar for me. It’s not just like, ‘Yeah, that might be fun, let’s go try this out.’”
In the meantime, Affleck is plenty busy. He’s in post-production on his long-awaitedArgofollow-upLive by Night, also for Warner Bros., and the DC Extended Universe is certainly robust withWonder Womanserving as a precursor to next November’s release ofJustice League, which will be followed byThe FlashandAquaman. So while WB may have an internal date in mind for Affleck’sBatman, he’s not the type to rush these things, and he certainly has the clout to say “Hold your horses” if WB starts to get impatient. Long story short: the standaloneBatmanmovie is probably Affleck’s next directorial effort, but it won’t move forward to production until Affleck is 100% happy with the script.
For much more of ourJustice Leagueset visit coverage, peruse the links below:
