Affleck Seen Entering WB With a Script and Matt Reeves Talks Up Batman

Welcome Back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

Before I get into this particular part, I made a promise during our Cavill-gate piece that I would bring you guys facts with quality written pieces, I am not breaking that promise today, but as a disclosure the first part of the article will deal with speculation BEHIND facts. Now that it's out there we can move forward. One of the biggest issues that the DCEU has faced since Batman vs Superman's release back in 2016 is the length of Ben Affleck's tenure as Batman. Every month it seems that there is some new rumor on the actor's status in the cowl. While there are many critics of the film BvS, Ben Affleck's performance was considered by many to be the film's silver lining, and so a lot of fans have hoped he retain the role till he could at least stay till he could do his own solo film. This solo Batman film has had quite the bumpy rode as it has shifted hands from initially being produced, directed, written, and starred by Ben Affleck, to be cowritten with Geoff Johns, to the initial script being scrapped and Matt Reeves replacing Affleck as the director. The whole process has been a mess and with the poor box office and critical reception to Justice League, a lot of people thought Ben Affleck was done for good, yet there may be hope on the horizon.

It has been reported that just yesterday, Ben Affleck was seen walking into Warner Bros headquarters with a script in hand. This is big news because just the day before WB announced that Matt Reeves' script was finished and that it was going into editing phase and that they were hoping to start production in the summer of 2019. While nothing is confirmed, this could be a very good sign for those of us who hope that Affleck will do Matt Reeves' film. Contract negotiations for Affleck were reported to begin around this time and with Affleck walking into the studio with script in hand, there is only so much room for coincidence you can allow before it becomes an issue of A+B=C. While I am not going to allow myself to get too hopeful, I will say that this is a promising sign and I do truly hope that Ben will stay with the role. That being said, whether Ben stays or goes we will more than likely have an announcement about who is playing Batman in the Matt Reeves film here before the end of the year as production is planned to begin by the summer time.

However, that is not the only Batman news that we have. As stated previously Matt Reeves has finished the initial script for his standalone Batman film and it is reported that Warner Brothers is singing it's praise far and wide. Since then he had an interview with IndieWire, in it Reeves reveals a bit about his inspiration for writing this movie, and it's good:

I think that it’s interesting, because one of the things that I’ve found interesting, just as we’re working on the story, is looking back at Jekyll and Hyde, and the idea of your shadow-self, and the idea of, we are all multiple things. It’s different aspects of who we are, and I think there are times when maybe the surface of Bruce is not really who he is, but that’s his disguise. There are times when Batman’s the disguise, but there are times when his true essence comes out, because by being veiled, a kind of instinctual side comes out that’s very pure.

Every time Reeves talks about this film it honestly gets me more excited. Back when he first took on this project he talked about the film being noir driven and that he was consulting old Alfred Hitchcock movies for inspiration. Honestly, if we do get Ben Affleck in this Matt Reeves Batman film I fully expect a movie that will blow the Nolan films out of the water. While those movies are great films, I find that the more times I watch them, the more I realize they aren't good Batman films. They share a very similar problem to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man franchise. They have Bruce be far more reluctant to be Batman, constantly looking for a way out of the role so he can be with one of the worst written love interests I have ever seen. It's just not an accurate portrait of who and what Batman is as a character. In that regard it is very clear that Matt Reeves has a far better understanding of what that character is than Nolan did, and I am very excited and anxious to see the finished product!

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and we will see you again soon!