Although the majority of reviews for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice tore it apart, almost everyone was praising of Affleck’s performance as both Bruce Wayne and The Dark Knight – even though they all argued his character wasn’t fleshed out. So it came as no surprise when in June both Affleck and Geoff Johns began talking about the solo Batman movie. “What I probably would do, is in some ways what Zack Snyder did with [Batman v Superman],” Affleck told Cines Argentinos. “Which is to borrow certain things from the great comic books, but create an original story around it because I wouldn’t want the fans to already know the story and be familiar, but I would borrow, steal, great things that have been done before in the comics.” By the end of June, Affleck had confirmed himself to be directing and he was officially announced in July.
It didn’t take long before cracks began to show, however. In September Time-Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said that The Batman would be out within in the next 18 months, which wouldn’t give Affleck and Johns a lot of time to work on their script about Batman taking on Deathstroke. A few months later a new rumour surfaced online from American Psycho writer and podcaster Brett Easton Ellis who overheard a conversation between executives who heard bad things about The Batman’s script. “They went to the studio and they said, ‘Here’s 30 things that are wrong with it that we can fix,” he recalled in an interview with The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey. “And [the executives] said, ‘We don’t care. We don’t really care. The amount of money we’re going to make globally, I mean 70 percent of our audience is not going to be seeing this in English. And it doesn’t really matter, these things that you’re bringing up about the flaws of the script.’” Rumours of Warner Bros. rushing productions to meet deals and deadlines had been reported earlier in the month following the critically-panned Suicide Squad‘s release. According to a story from The Hollywood Reporter, writer/director David Ayer was given just six weeks to write his script, which led to huge re-shoots to ‘lighten the tone’ and several editors cutting different versions of the film to appease Warner Bros. executives.
Throughout the rest of December, Affleck gave small updates that he and Johns were still working on the script and promised he wouldn’t make something he wouldn’t be proud of – but it would start production in the Spring of 2017. “I’m not going to write and direct anything that I don’t think is good enough to be made,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m definitely going to make sure I have something that is special — there’s not enough money in the world to make a mediocre version of Batman worth it.”
All of this would come to a head in January 2017, when everything hit the fan.
It began on January 1st when he told The Guardian, “[The Batman is] not a set thing and there’s no script. If it doesn’t come together in a way I think is really great I’m not going to do it.” It was then reported that problems with the script development had pushed the release of The Batman back by several months, which would lead The Batman into another Suicide Squad scenario. A week later Affleck appeared on Jimmy Kimmel to ‘set the record straight’, but his frustrations over people only questioning him about The Batman were showing more and more. “I’m gonna direct the next Batman, we’re working on it,” Affleck said. “It’s one of those things that’s really frustrating because with Live by Night it took me a year-and-a-half to write it and get it ready and I worked really hard. It’s just no one gave a shit. No one was like, ‘Where’s Live by Night?’ But with Batman I keep getting the, ‘Where’s the fucking Batman?’ I’m like, “Whoa, I’m working! Give me a second!” Just three days later in an interview with USA Today he once again showed some concern. “Superhero movies get the level of attention that is nothing like any film I’ve done,” he said. “You cast the 14th lead in these movies and the Internet goes crazy. I understand and embrace that. That’s part of the pressure that comes with doing it. That’s why I am not going to do it, unless I really feel confident about it… But when that day comes, should that day come, I’m sure that’s going to be the most pressure, the most stress I have ever experienced in my professional life.” And then a few days later, in a complete 180, Affleck stated, “Batman is coming along great, it’s going to be really special, we’re going to take the time to make it right, we’re gonna do it good, we’re gonna do it the right way, and fans are going to love it.”
On January 31st 2017, Ben Affleck stepped down as the director of The Batman. He became the fourth director to leave a DC Films project.
If the ‘Sad Affleck’ video was the first stage that Ben Affleck was having second thoughts about his commitment to the DC Extended Universe, his final interviews as director of The Batman cement it. He refers to questions about the movie, “a pain in the ass” and his interview with Jimmy Kimmel magnified his frustrations when no one asked him questions about a project he cared deeply about, Live By Night. These frustrations were probably made worse when Live By Night bombed at the box office, received dreadful reviews, and lost Warner Bros a reported $75 million. The day after Affleck stepped down as director it was reported that Chris Terrio had re-written his script, and rumours even surfaced that he could leave the project all together.
“Warner Bros. fully supports Ben Affleck’s decision and remains committed to working with him to bring a standalone Batman picture to life,” the studio said in a joint statement.
Though unconfirmed, it is rumoured that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves will take over, and will work with Affleck and Johns’ script to get the movie into the still-scheduled Spring production for a 2018 release.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth, the co-host of The Flickering Myth Podcast and the author of Lights, Camera, GAME OVER!: How Video Game Movies Get Made (which you can pre-order from Amazon UK and Amazon US). You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen.
