THE BATMAN – Ben Affleck’s Cancelled Solo Movie

[geektalk]

Is Ben Affleck’s THE BATMAN the Greatest Comic Book Movie Never Made? Here’s a brief look at what could have been …

News first broke in October 2014 that Warner Brothers would contract Ben Affleck to co-write and direct a solo Batman movie reprising his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman in a continuation of the DC Extended Universe.
Joe Manganiello would co-star as Deathstroke with a rebooted Bat-Girl, plus Jared Leto expressed interest in reprising his role as the Joker from Suicide Squad.

The plot would see Deathstroke wreak murderous havoc in Bruce Wayne’s life in a personal revenge mission. The proposed story would see a backdrop of Arkham Asylum, The League of Assassins, the death of Robin explored, a rogues’ gallery of Batman’s arch-villains and an introduction to Bat-Girl.

#Batman #TheBatman #BatmanvsDeathstroke #Deathstroke #DCEU

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in july of 2013
at the san diego comic-con filmmaker
zack snyder revealed that his planned
follow-up to
man of steel would see superman facing
off against
batman snyder would say
ben provides an interesting
counterbalance to henry’s superman
he has the acting chops to create a
layered portrayal of a man who is older
and wiser than clark kent and bears the
scars of a seasoned crime fighter but
retain the charm that the world sees in
billionaire bruce wayne
i can’t wait to work with him and warner
brothers would state that
we knew we needed an extraordinary actor
to take on one of dc comics most
enduringly popular superheroes
his outstanding career is a testament to
his talent and we know he
and zack will bring new dimension to the
duality of this character
in october 2014 ambitious plans were
unveiled at a time warner investors
meeting projecting releases for 10
pc branded titles including plans for
batman to appear in justice league part
1
and part 2. batman vs superman dawn of
justice premiered in mexico city on
march the 19
2016 and was released in the united
states on march the 25th
2016 to mixed reaction
studio executives had reportedly given
an unfinished rough cut of the movie a
standing ovation at a private screening
the enthusiastic response led warner
brothers to add an additional three
batman movies to the roster for the dc
extended universe
it was hoped that the actor could be
locked into a 10-year deal
in order to create the dc extended
universe around batman
who was also set to make a brief
appearance in the scheduled suicide
squad movies
agent patrick whitesell was asked for
how long did he think his client would
want to play batman
he replied well he’s contracted to do at
least justice league one and two so at
least three times wearing the cape
and there’s a script that he’s written
that is a really cool batman idea so
that’s out there as an option
jeff johns is a brilliant guy you know
he i consider him to be the most
valued resource on all things you know
comic book and every time i like
something in a comic i always mention he
goes oh yeah i wrote that so after what
now i just think he’s bull i mean he
says he wrote everything you know he and
i are working together on something and
i really am excited about it and i love
him he’s the best
the quote he and i are working on
something together
with seemingly confirmed suspicions that
the star had been offered the
opportunity to take the franchise in his
own direction
within the ongoing continuity of the
shared cinematic universe
kevin smith would then say on his
co-hosted podcast that ben has been
working on a solo script with jeff johns
as well
last conversation i had with jeff johns
i was like are you working on it and he
said yeah
i said what’s it like man how do you
co-write with someone and he’s going we
just break it up
he takes halves and i take halves and
then we write and then we switch
material
and then he goes over mine and i go over
his that sounds so
fun aflac had of course
already proven himself as a talented and
masterful filmmaker with the titles
gone baby gone argo and the town
and the news was positive in all ways
the highly anticipated project was in
great hands
warner brothers chief executive officer
would speak at cinemacon to a gathering
of movie theater owners from around the
world
saying that we’ve set up a great
foundation for our dc
slate which includes at least 10 movies
through 2020.
during the warner brothers presentation
at the san diego comic con in 2016
was finally officially confirmed as the
film’s director
has it already been long reported i said
you know i know harry would do batman
the solo project
it’s not that i’m in a hurry or not
that’s what that’s also on my plate
right now is batman that’s what i’m
working on trying to get the script
right and just trying to get
the the movie i think is going to be
called the batman the batman yeah
at least that’s what we’re going with
now all right i might change it
i think that’s the best um i think
that’s about it right now that’s that’s
all i got
we’re working on the script the script
is going well i’m really excited about
it
and um i assure you that when there’s
anything to develop so
you’ll hear about it i’m sure he’ll be
fantastic above
all else and as as a filmmaker
he’s he’s got his own style you know
he’s not copying anyone else
and he’s also sort of being tenacious in
his career he’s had
ups followed by downs and now he’s very
up again and i think that requires
um and shows a very special strength of
character
details and characters would remain a
secret and that the director and studio
were looking to execute the
definitive batman film that they wanted
to tell the
ultimate batman story and to do so
they’d be utilizing
all the big guns from batman’s rogues
gallery
including the joker the world’s greatest
detective aspect of batman is more
present in this story than it was in the
last one
and will probably be expanded upon
further in a batman movie that i would
do
i think all the great batman stories are
at their heart
detective stories that’s why they feel
like noir movies in a way
somehow feels like it could be the
maltese falcon but at their heart
good batman stories are like i said
detective stories
that same month as press were invited to
the set of justice league
the would-be batman director was asked
for information regarding warner’s
potential release date for his solo
batman film
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
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 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
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
one month later as the interest in the
project intensified
actor jared leto cast as the joker in
suicide squad
told the toronto sun i hope it’s an
introduction and not
the end because i could easily just play
the joker a couple more times and then
retire because it’s so
fulfilling and so creative and it’s so
imaginative
it’s really difficult to think about
doing anything else
i think it would be incredible to see
batman and the joker go head to head
this batman and this joker i mean i
don’t know that might be too much but
that would be fun
then posted a video of deathstroke on
his social media pages
in what seemed to be a reference to the
solo batman film
the 30-second video shows slade wilson
also known as deathstroke
standing on what appeared to be some
sort of military plane
dc’s ruthless assassin had appeared in
season two of arrow played by manu
bennett
bennett was a force of nature as
deathstroke but we’re still excited to
see the dc cinematic universe’s
interpretation of the ruthless assassin
what is it about deathstroke that makes
him a compelling
uh villain or antagonist for for batman
both in
justice league you know it’s hard to say
exactly what it is i think like the
reaction to spoke for stuff like it just
seems like a great
uh counterpart to batman you know
they’re similar in terms of
skill sets they’re similar in terms of
tone and and
uh he’s never been uh utilized in a
movie before so it’s really
really exciting what about joe the the
casting he’s great
he’s great and he’s this revelation fit
into place with the fact
months earlier arrow showrunner mark
guggenheim had said on his tumblr page
when asked about the return of the
character that
the character of slade wilson is
currently tied up in another dc project
frank miller was asked for his thoughts
on the dc movie verse
and said that he’d like to see the caped
crusader in a movie that succeeded in
losing the toys and focus more on the
mission and to use the city a great deal
more
in regards to batman vs superman miller
said i’ll just say
thanks what can i say no actually i’ll
withdraw that i’ll say
you’re welcome greg the next batman
we’re working on
it’s one of those things that’s really
frustrating because like with live by
night it took me a year and a half to
write it and get it ready and i work
really hard and
it’s just nobody gave it no one was like
where’s lift by knights right yeah right
what was that
like where’s the batman i’m working
give me a second soon after the kimmel
appearance
would withdraw from directing the batman
his statement would read
there are certain characters who hold a
special place in the hearts of millions
performing this role demands focus
passion and the very best performance i
can give
it has become clear that i cannot do
both jobs to the level they require
together with the studio i have decided
to find a partner in a director who will
collaborate with me on this massive film
i’m still in this and we are making it
but we are currently looking for a
director
i remain extremely committed to this
project and look forward to bringing
this to life for fans around the world
[Music]
the studio were then said to be eyeing a
short list of directors that included
matt reeves who had just released war
for the planet of the apes
a rewrite of john’s and affleck’s
screenplay had reportedly just been
handed in by chris tario
the oscar-winning scriptwriter of the
aflac directed argo
it soon became clear to all concerned
that reeves was looking to use his
own story the casting of robert
pattinson as the new batman would make
the news in may
discarding all previous development
reeves was given the time to work on his
own script for the film that would have
no attachment to either the batman vs
superman or
justice league films that had gone
before
jay olivia director of warner animated
features
the dark knight returns assault on
arkham and justice league dark would
write that
his version of batman in his solo movie
would have made fans proud
and the artist would also put out a
tweet to correct other rumors saying
was the best batman script i’d ever read
ben
had a kick-ass story and i believe that
the audience and fans would have loved
it
in terms of actual plot details from
sources with knowledge of the screenplay
cinematographer robert richardson who
was attached to the movie explained that
he was going more into the insanity
aspects so i think you would have seen
something a little
darker than what we’ve seen in the past
and more into the individual
who’s inside batman he was entering into
a little more of the arkham
he’s going into where you keep everyone
who’s bad
everyone is shifting actor joe
manganiello
would tell of some of the more
intriguing aspects to the plot
manganillo told yahoo entertainment it
was a
really dark story in which deathstroke
was like a shark or a horror movie
villain that was dismantling bruce life
from the inside out
it was the systemic thing he killed
everyone close to bruce and destroyed
his life to try and make him suffer
because he felt that bruce was
responsible for something that happened
to him
manganello was on course to reprise the
role of deathstroke in the batman
having already appeared briefly in
justice league in a scene that would
later see its context change with
re-editing
in fact the original justice league
post-credits scene
re-edited and restored in the snyder cut
shows the setup what would have been
manganello had already explained why
deathstroke was after batman
in the batman script deathstroke loses
his son and blamed batman for it
which is why in the restored end credits
sequence that appears in zack’s version
that was what we originally shot it was
lex luthor getting a hold of deathstroke
and letting him know
i know who killed your son and his name
is bruce
bruce wayne i really really didn’t want
deathstroke to have powers
i wanted him to be just a man who
experienced a tragedy
and instead of becoming this altruistic
utopian who believed that people
could be better and a better society he
was just this nihilistic killer
and there was a line in the sand between
the tactics that he was willing to use
and the ones that bruce was willing to
use
speaking of deathstroke’s past he said
the idea is that they were both trained
in the league of assassins
and that one went one way and one went
the other and i just really thought that
that was going to be a
really cool dichotomy to see this reveal
clarified by the league of assassins
logo was glimpsed on deathstroke’s sword
in the snyder cut
here’s manganello speaking to josh
horowitz on the happy sad confused
podcast
about how he became the proposed lead
villain of the piece
let’s go through the history a little
bit okay so you were cast you weren’t
cast by
by zack first was it it was first ben
when ben had his batman script i don’t
know if it was done if he was working on
it
how did that happen did you have to
audition did you come in did he have you
in mind what happened
you know i i just come off of of two
very successful
warner brothers movies in the magic mike
movies and so uh
i was you know i was in the mix over
there yeah
um so every all the executives over
there when
when it came up that ben i guess wanted
to you know wanted to make deathstroke
the villain
then this discussion happened as as i
understand it where
um the executives said
you know who’d be great as joe and then
zack snyder who knew me from
years previous said yeah i know joe
um you know they recommended they
vouched for me
uh which set up a meeting with between
ben affleck and i
and ben told me you’re the only person
i’m meeting with
um and we had a discussion we
watched the tim miller video uh that
the other tim miller piece that got him
uh deadpool yeah yeah he may be that
that like arkham origins death row
versus batman video uh you know ben and
i we
talked about that a lot and um and how
that was gonna relate to the action
sequences
and uh we talked specifically about
you know one big action piece and what
that was going to entail and kind of
like you know not in great detail but
kind of like painted the broad strokes
and
yeah talk about character i had no idea
why i was there
i mean i assumed secret project that
shoots one day in
august and then the whole movie for six
months in may i kind of went i think
this is justice league batman
but i didn’t know the character so um so
that was it a week later
they called me back and said um we need
you in london we need to start fitting
you for your suit so i was flying back
and forth from london that
whole summer and then at the end of the
summer
i came back we finished the suit
uh tailoring the suit and then
zach fired up the
you know the transport plane for the
justice league with all the smoking
and he said let’s go let’s go test this
thing out and so
zack and ben were behind the monitors
and so was everybody else in the justice
league like everybody came because they
heard
they’re testing out the new villain for
ben’s movie
and so it was like you know momoa and
and you know i mean and uh gal and
and you could get on ben and ezra
everybody lined up and was staring at
them
as i went and just did my i did my thing
you know what which is that footage
that ben then released onto he he
leaked it onto the under the web right
um
but you know funny funny just side story
while i was in london
you know i brought sophia and we went to
tea
high tea and um she took a picture of me
or we took a little picture together
and it got out that i had shaved the
sides of my head
and had a goatee and
the csi level detectives that
are the justice league dceu
fans put together while he’s in london
his hair looks like that his facial hair
looks that what shooting what could it
be and figured out that that was
deathstroke
that’s amazing and then how soon after
were you shooting
your bit for justice league well that
was that that
trip when we did that test footage same
trip
um we then
uh it was like like within days the crew
moved to monaco we went to uh
um we went to the monaco bay
you know monte carlo and uh and and they
got this huge yacht
you know they left luthor’s yacht for us
to shoot on it and i mean it was
pretty quick you know we were there we
shot that and
then um and and then and then
and then six months later i you know got
notification that batman wasn’t wasn’t
gonna happen
right the scene that i shot the original
ending
scene for justice league i shot with
with zach because zach was the director
of
right justice league and this was going
to be on sequent you know of his
of his movie but it was originally to
tease
simply tease me as the villain uh and i
would show up then
later uh and in ben’s movie it was just
it was just to set that up
well and then and what’s in zack
snyder’s justice league gun without
ruining it is clearly a tease like yes
it’s it’s a
the dialogue is much more of a tease
into that batman movie that sadly we
will
i guess never see yeah yeah probably
probably not i would imagine
you know we talked about tim miller’s
arkham origins uh and then that was
going to be
a basis for what the combat was going to
look like in the batman film so
ben and i definitely talked about that
um
and then i read
most of the the batman script as it was
at the time
when i was shooting justice league that
summer i was i was i read a bunch of it
and i knew what was what was going to
happen it was um
it was the the premise as you can
because you could kind of like infer
from the
the proper uh justice league and credit
scene
um slade is summoned by luthor
who uh offers a peace offering of
information
to slade he knows this so basically
slated lost his son and he blamed
batman for it batman had a hand in it
and uh luthor summons him to his yacht
and gives him a key piece of information
that batman’s secret identity is bruce
wayne
so now he’s setting loose this
unstoppable force
on gotham city and bruce wayne and the
film with the batman film was going to
be kind of similar to like
you know imagine if david fincher’s the
game was real
you know uh one of my favorite movies
systematically dismantles bruce’s life
and starts murdering all the people in
it uh
as he destroys his finances and
uh just basically paints him into a
corner
um uh uh you know and there was like a
big huge showdown i think between
it was like batgirl batgirl jumps in
to try to help bruce because deathstroke
is so
fast that uh he can anticipate bruce’s
movements and there was this huge fight
in gotham city um where where batman is
like you know uh
completely afraid because he realizes
he’s he’s met
someone who can take him and um and then
that leads to this big climactic battle
through the streets of gotham city at
the end but um
yeah it was like a real like
psychological thriller where deathstroke
was kind of like uh
he was like a horror movie villain you
know the thing about it i think that a
lot of people don’t realize is that i
actually wasn’t
technically a part of the original
japanese league i was cast in ben
affleck’s batman to play the villain
and we shot a scene to tease our
match-up
in the batman film that was going to
appear at the end of the film so
that scene was then reconfigured to
tease
a justice league 2 movie that didn’t
happen
zach restored the original scene that we
shot to tease the batman movie that
never happened and that’s what
fans will get to see at the end at the
time
you know once batman got canceled i kind
of wrote it off
and i thought okay this is over i had
actually shifted gears and started
working with the studio on an origin
film for deathstroke
that also didn’t happen uh so for me
i just let it go and unfortunately i
don’t own the ip
[Laughter]
uh a very prolific director gareth evans
who i’m a
huge fan of i worship at the altar of
gareth evans who did the raid and raid
2.
uh we had a long talk one night on skype
um
and he wanted to shoot an origin film
for deathstroke
with me in the in kind of in the
in the air of the raid um that didn’t
happen
i always feel unfulfilled and
unsatisfied
because we didn’t get to make that film
i think that film would have blown minds
and i think the fans
it would have been exactly what the fans
want even people who weren’t fans of it
would have loved that movie and what we
were going to do with them so what
you’re telling me joe is that we need to
start a petition
to get the deathstroke origin movie made
sometimes those things work
february 2020 during an interview with
the new york times saying
i showed somebody the batman script they
said i think the script is good
i also think you’ll drink yourself to
death if you go through what you just
went through again
the spirit of that as a guy who’s
vulnerable as a guy who’s aches when he
gets up in the morning as a guy who like
feels a lot of psychological sort of
torment i thought was
a really interesting approach to to
playing a hero and that was um
that was how you know what we wanted to
do and uh you know i
i really i had a better time on batman
for superman which i really enjoyed
doing and
justice league was unfortunately like um
you know touched by you know some
personal tragedy and
uh of you know uh death in zack’s family
and uh
it’s just like i say sometimes things
sort of work in gel and sometimes they
just
they said you want to direct and star in
like a solo batman movie
i found that i had kind of at just some
point lost my
enthusiasm or passion for it you know i
was like this should really be made by
somebody for whom it’s their wildest
dream
you know come true and for me it was it
had become like
something different and it was clear to
me that it was time to move on
but i do have some really fond memories
particularly of batman versus superman
and
how exciting that was and how uh
energizing it was and
great that thank you very much and i’m
genuinely bummed that we’re not going to
see your
the batman i think robert’s a great
actor he’s going to be great he’s going
to be absolutely fantastic can you tell
me what you’re the batman would have
been
uh i what we have script it was a whole
thing you know really what it was for me
was
and i liked the script i wrote it with
jeff john so i have a lot of respect for
um it just so happened that like
i had done a couple of those movies and
i kind of lost my passion for it you
know what i mean
i kind of lost my passion for telling
those stories i got interested in
telling stories more like this and it
just seemed like
you know very clear to me that if you’re
not going to be if it’s not the most
important thing in the world to you
you’re not going to make a very good
movie movie deserves to be made by
somebody who’s
dying to do it and can’t wait and
that wasn’t me at the time so i moved on
[Music]
in conclusion i would say that the
batman never getting off the ground is a
real missed opportunity for fans of
batman dc comics and cinema in general
ben’s skills behind the camera his
handling of drama
suspense and character-driven story not
to mention his already proven on-screen
presence as the dark knight
leads me to believe that even in 25
years from now
people will still be saying to each
other you know which movie never got
made but really should have
the batman thanks for watching

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