Back when Justice League was announced in June, the first man whose name was attached to it was Argo director Ben Affleck. However the rumour was quickly debunked a few days later. In that time, Affleck has remained mostly quiet about the project but in an interview with Hitflix, he spoke out about Justice League as well as Marvel’s The Avengers.
“I just want to make it clear because it’s not like I had something to even pass on,” says Affleck. “Because someone will eventually do Justice League and they’ll go, like, ‘Ben Affleck passed on it,’ and it won’t be true. So I don’t mind setting the record straight. It’s one of those things where the closest I came was some people talked to me about it like at a meeting. They were like, ‘Here’s the stuff we’re doing,’ you know? ‘Here’s what we’re looking at.’ That kind of thing. And they suggested it. But I don’t think there’s a script. I don’t think there’s anything.”
Many have speculated that it seems that Warner Bros. is just making a Justice League movie as a reaction to the box office success of The Avengers. However despite not ever getting involved in the project, Affleck remains positive about the movie: “I think there’s a DC Avengers that could be done because they have the characters for it, and there’s some stuff in the comics now that’s kind of interesting, and it’s cool.”
He continues, “That’s what Marvel does so well. They do a lot of things well, but one of the things that I’m really impressed by is how they co-ordinated all those movies. I mean, you never see somebody make a whole movie with the eye of, like, building it into new sequels, but that’s because you’re just hoping it’s a hit and you’ll do it again. But for shooting these kind of satellite movies with the notion that later on you’ll build the planet that they’re orbiting around, and coordinating it all ahead of time, and imagining how the story’s going to work and flow with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, it’s a big deal. You don’t see that level of organisation much in movies. You know what I mean? It’s like enough to just get one movie together and off the ground.”
Although establishing himself as a drama director with movies such as Gone Baby Gone and The Town, Affleck added that he wouldn’t be adverse to doing a superhero movie. “I would love it. My interest is really just in, you know, if I like the characters and if the stories seem smart and surprise me. The things that people look for. So those things exist in the superhero genre. And when they do, I think it’s really exciting.”
Since the movies announcement, Justice League has had several directors rumoured to be attached including Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) and McG (Charlie’s Angels), but so far the project has no director, although Will Beall (Gangster Squad) is reportedly writing a script. The movie is still scheduled to be released in 2015.
Originally published December 21, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
