Ben Affleck To Team With DC’s Geoff Johns On Standalone ‘Batman’ Film - Part 2

[Mjölnir]

If Campea understands this, why make the statement?

I think it's kind of silly to speculate about what Affleck does or doesn't know about handling a project of much, much larger scale.

It's a case of "You don't know what you don't know".

Affleck has never directed a blockbuster before. He has mentioned being surprised by the scale of them and how different it is from what he has done in previous interviews.

He did have a real reason for saying he would direct if the script was good; he was clearly trying to get the script right and it wasn't yet.

Affleck may not have realized the extent of a larger film's impact on his basic creative process, until fairly recently.

Not to beat a dead horse here, but LIVE BY NIGHT has like a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. He spent a ton of time filming BVS and JUSTICE LEAGUE in addition to his other creative projects, including LIVE BY NIGHT, and this seems to have had an effect on its quality, or more to the point, he seems to feel like it has, if rumors are to be believed.

With all the other commitments he had/has, he may not be entirely confident in his abilities to pull off writing, starring in and directing a blockbuster with the quality it needs to have at this point in his career.

There are many legitimate reasons, both from a business and creative standpoint, that neither Affleck nor WB would feel he is the man for the directing job at this point.

Because of the same reason I just said, that it screams damage control, especially in the light of having gone out of his way to bring up production issues that weren't even out there in the rumor sphere.

It's no more silly to speculate about that than most things we do here. Affleck is a really good director and is not likely to do something haphazardly. He must have given it some good thought before accepting, and while it's certainly possible he didn't anticipate every detail he must have had a better grasp of what it entails than any of us.

I maintain that the biggest sign we have is him revealing problems that were unknown. That's extremely rare, and given that we have more rumors from generally credible sites that point to even more issues I think the most logical conclusion right now is that the statements are just damage control. I think looking past that is both ignoring everything that's being said around this production and how companies always handle the public side of issues like this. What was it, a couple of weeks ago that he told us he's definitely directing Batman?

 

[thebatfan5194]

Well Denis Villeneuve has officially signed on for Dune:
http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/ne...e-has-officially-signed-on-for-a-dune-reboot/

So that probably takes him off of the list.

 

[The Guard]

Because of the same reason I just said, that it screams damage control, especially in the light of having gone out of his way to bring up production issues that weren't even out there in the rumor sphere.

What screams damage control about it?

Affleck is a really good director and is not likely to do something haphazardly. He must have given it some good thought before accepting, and while it's certainly possible he didn't anticipate every detail he must have had a better grasp of what it entails than any of us.

Nor does him not directing now mean he did something "haphazardly".

It probably wasn't just one thing that caused this to happen. There are probably multiple creative decisions, career decisions and business decisions wrapped up in this.

I maintain that the biggest sign we have is him revealing problems that were unknown.

"I want to get the script right" isn't really revealing an amazingly unique production problem. It's Affleck basically asking the public, press, and possibly WB, for more time and some patience. If there's an issue revealed there, it's that WB has a timetable, and he wasn't sure if he can make that timetable work for him.

That's extremely rare, and given that we have more rumors from generally credible sites that point to even more issues I think the most logical conclusion right now is that the statements are just damage control. I think looking past that is both ignoring everything that's being said around this production and how companies always handle the public side of issues like this.

"The script is bad" is not a particularly credible or relevant rumor in itself.

And "the script isn't ready" does not equal "the script is bad", or "this script is going to be bad". It equals "It's not quite there yet".

We don't know much of anything about the story of this film. We don't know any specifics about what issues it might have. We haven't even heard a "Well, the third act is kind of shaky" rumor like we got with MAN OF STEEL and countless other films.

It's just a random, often clickbaity, "the script is bad" with nothing else of any substance.

We knew the script wasn't where Affleck wanted it to be. He basically said as much to the press and the public. This isn't really news.

Now we know that Affleck is not directing, and he has made a public statement that he feels it is due to his own inability to make it work.

But where exactly is the studio damage control element of a director essentially saying "Sorry guys, I tried, but I'm not the guy for this"?

How is dropping a bomb like this and overtly having the director essentially admit that he failed considered "damage control" in any real sense, especially when it incites panic among fans?

 

[I Am The Knight]

The thing is his response seems to come from frustration built out of hoping that things will change. This is something I've seen in many DC fans since MoS, people hoping things will get better, despite the evidence to the contrary. I get why fans do it, the problem is the studio creating these films doesn't care about the characters the same way we do. Marvel cares, WB doesn't. That's been evident since MoS came out, and that has been the reason the DCEU has continued to stumble.

I think it is getting harder and harder to say nice things about the future of the DCEU. Fans keep on hoping for good things and then they get slapped in the face. Must be tough for Campea.

Link?

Not sure if I can link it as I believe it has profanity in it but just go to Collider's YouTube channel and search for the Movie Talk episode where they discuss GCS back when it was announced.

 

[mat-chow]

Terrio coming in tells me that Ben is just as involved as his statement indicated. A writer he and Johns both trust, putting it in ship shape for a to-be-named director to helm. I think WB is nowhere near shutting this down. I am an optimist, but even as a realist I don't see this as "BAD NEWS". Just the reality of where things are at for all players involved. I firmly believe the best days of the DCEU are still to come.

 

[The Shape]

The only thing that irks me about this whole affair is that Affleck had to have known for at least a couple of weeks that he wasn't going to pursue this. So even though he kept getting grilled by the media, in hindsight it would have been better if he had kept giving non-committal answers to Batman-related questions. But the fact that he came out just a few weeks ago saying, "Yeah I'm directing it," and then decided that he's not, is admittedly pretty aggravating.

This is the strange part of all this. Why would Affleck go on TV and announce that he's directing the film, if he knew he probably wasn't going to and would make such an announcement 2 and a half weeks later? If Campea is to be believed, it was essentially a lie and nothing more than damage control. However, how could that be considered damage control?

Making two completely contradictory announcements two and a half weeks apart only made things worse, IMO. If Affleck/WB really knew this was coming, controlling the "damage" would have been instructing Kimmel to avoid any discussion of "The Batman" solo film during Affleck's appearance. A truly simple and easy way to avoid any further confusion, prevent Affleck from digging himself further into the hole of "everyone thinks I'm directing Batman", etc.

This leads me to believe that Affleck and the studio may have honestly come this final realization/conclusion sometime between then and now. After all, only now has he finally completed the Live By Night press tour and it's probably the first opportunity he's had to really get knee-deep into discussions/planning/work/scheduling for The Batman.

 

[The Guard]

This is the strange part of all this. Why would Affleck go on TV and announce that he's directing the film, if he knew he probably wasn't going to and would make such an announcement 2 and a half weeks later? If Campea is to be believed, it was essentially a lie and nothing more than damage control. However, how could that be considered damage control?

Making two completely contradictory announcements two and a half weeks apart only made things worse, IMO. If Affleck/WB really knew this was coming, controlling the "damage" would have been instructing Kimmel to avoid any discussion of "The Batman" solo film during Affleck's appearance. A truly simple and easy way to avoid any further confusion, prevent Affleck from digging himself further into the hole of "everyone thinks I'm directing Batman", etc.

This leads me to believe that Affleck and the studio may have honestly come this final realization/conclusion sometime between then and now. After all, only now has he finally completed the Live By Night press tour and it's probably the first opportunity he's had to really get knee-deep into discussions/planning/work/scheduling for The Batman.

Exactly. This is the damage, not the damage control.

Affleck has apparently had some doubts and some concerns about his role in the project, and has really been fairly open about that considering, but they were probably waiting to see how LIVE BY NIGHT was received to make a final decision. As recently as several days ago, there were major articles about the flop of LIVE BY NIGHT, and Variety reported on it a week ago. The timing of this is not a coincidence.

More to the point, the fact that they are announcing this now, and not weeks or months from now, suggests that they are still very much moving forward in some capacity.

 

[scifiwolf]

People are freaking the f*** out over what should be a BTS, in-development, nothing official process. Ben recognized that writing, producing, directing, and starring was too much. The one thing he hasn't committed to is directing, and all we've seen from him is an uncertainty that he even would, definitively. Terrio coming in and doing a second draft over Affleck and Johns is good news. It means the script is progressing. The "news" and "rumors" of Ben vacating Batman as an actor is clickbait bulls***t that only surfaced as overreactive speculation in the wake of him not directing. If there was a single kernel of truth to that, that rumor would have started before yesterday.

 

[The Guard]

And again, there's always the chance he could still decide not to do a third film as Batman. This is not unheard of, and it would make career sense if Justice League and Ben's role in it is poorly received.

Nothing is set in stone, and nothing ever was.

 

[Mjölnir]

What screams damage control about it?



Nor does him not directing now mean he did something "haphazardly".

It probably wasn't just one thing that caused this to happen. There are probably multiple creative decisions, career decisions and business decisions wrapped up in this.



"I want to get the script right" isn't really revealing an amazingly unique production problem. It's Affleck basically asking the public, press, and possibly WB, for more time and some patience. If there's an issue revealed there, it's that WB has a timetable, and he wasn't sure if he can make that timetable work for him.



"The script is bad" is not a particularly credible or relevant rumor in itself.

And "the script isn't ready" does not equal "the script is bad", or "this script is going to be bad". It equals "It's not quite there yet".

We don't know much of anything about the story of this film. We don't know any specifics about what issues it might have. We haven't even heard a "Well, the third act is kind of shaky" rumor like we got with MAN OF STEEL and countless other films.

It's just a random, often clickbaity, "the script is bad" with nothing else of any substance.

We knew the script wasn't where Affleck wanted it to be. He basically said as much to the press and the public. This isn't really news.

Now we know that Affleck is not directing, and he has made a public statement that he feels it is due to his own inability to make it work.

But where exactly is the studio damage control element of a director essentially saying "Sorry guys, I tried, but I'm not the guy for this"?

How is dropping a bomb like this and overtly having the director essentially admit that he failed considered "damage control" in any real sense, especially when it incites panic among fans?

The damage control is that he's supposedly just stepping down for the good of the movie, rather than there being big problems with the production. If there were big problems that caused Affleck to say "screw it, I have no interest in directing under these circumstances" the things he would be set up to say publicly would be exactly like what he now has said.

Going out of your way to say that the script isn't where it should be is a clear negative.

The rumors I've talked about is about whether Affleck will stay on to even play Batman. As it's coming from sites that people in the industry deem credible it's worth taking into consideration, even if it should of course not be treated as more than rumors either.

 

[The Guard]

That's not really damage control if he hasn't officially decided not to do the film, though.

Damage control is a studio response to disappointing news, not the delivery of the disappointing news itself.

Affleck maybe not being Batman beyond Justice League should never not been taken into consideration by anyone with a shred of logic. He's an actor playing a character on a contract basis. If that character and the franchise its in isn't well received, it doesn't make good career sense to continue doing so. This was widely discussed after "Sad Affleck" became a thing and BVS was poorly received.

He didn't go out of his way to say there were script problems. He went out of his way to say "Guys, I'm working on it, give me a little bit of time and patience."

 

[The Joker]

Well Denis Villeneuve has officially signed on for Dune:
http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/ne...e-has-officially-signed-on-for-a-dune-reboot/

So that probably takes him off of the list.

He was a pipe dream anyway.

 

[Boom]

The script might not be where it needs to be simply because Affleck hasn't had the time to really sit down and work on it in earnest. He's been crazy busy.

 

[thebatfan5194]

Having Terrio on as screenwriter now shows that Ben is at least happy with his work on JL.

 

[Mjölnir]

That's not really damage control if he hasn't officially decided not to do the film, though.

Damage control is response to disappointing news, not the delivery of the disappointing news.

Affleck maybe not being Batman beyond Justice League should never not been taken into consideration by anyone with a shred of logic. He's an actor playing a character on a contract basis. If that character and the franchise its in isn't well received, it doesn't make good career sense to continue doing so.

He didn't go out of his way to say there were script problems. He went out of his way to say "Guys, I'm working on it, give me a little bit of time and patience."

Of course it is. Affleck stepping down as director is a huge negative PR issue for the movie and the DECU as tons of people were looking forward to him doing that, and DC has had issues with directors and writers before in this shared universe, even to the point of actually letting a trailer company cut one of their movies instead of the director.

Both those factors would create a lot of negative buzz about this project and the studio would not want it to get out that they have big creative differences, or other problems that could possibly be the cause of this. They would then make sure that what Affleck is saying sounds like the least problematic thing possible, even trying to make it sound like the movie will be better off for this.

That's exactly what the statement sounded like. I'm not saying that it's impossible that it's true as it's stated, but it definitely sounds like one of the classic damage control lines you'd hear.

And yes, saying that he'll direct the movie if the script is good enough is definitely going out of his way to point out an issue. Note how he, after saying that, went back to saying that he'll definitely be directing, which is the expected answer for someone in his position. That's how you act if you just want to make things sound good and not get extra pressure on yourself, while stating that there's suddenly conditions on the project for you to still do the job sounds like putting pressure on the company.

 

[FunkMiller]

Chris Terrio wrote BvS. Having him rewrite The Batman is terrible news.

 

[Zero_Effect]

Chris Terrio wrote BvS. Having him rewrite The Batman is terrible news.

Just the worst!

 

[The Guard]

Of course it is. Affleck stepping down as director is a huge negative PR issue for the movie and the DECU as tons of people were looking forward to him doing that, and DC has had issues with directors and writers before in this shared universe, even to the point of actually letting a trailer company cut one of their movies instead of the director.

Then how is him doing so publicly somehow "damage control"?

Both those factors would create a lot of negative buzz about this project and the studio would not want it to get out that they have big creative differences, or other problems that could be the cause of this. They would then make sure that what Affleck is saying sounds like the least problematic thing possible, even trying to make it sound like the movie will be better off for this.

And it may be better off for this, but at no point does Affleck make any statement that the movie will be better off for this.

It's not even implied. He makes no statement about this move's impact on the quality of the film. He makes a statement about what he is personally capable of.

That's exactly what the statement sounded like. I'm not saying that it's impossible that it's true, but it definitely sounds like one of the classic damage control lines you'd hear.

I have yet to see most classic damage control statements in a format where the creative party doesn't cite creative differences or personal/family reasons, but instead flat out says "I'm not able to do this from a creative standpoint." There is nothing usual about this. It is certainly not the norm. Affleck directing a film of this magnitude and starring in it was also not the norm.

And yes, saying that he'll direct the movie if the script is good enough is definitely going out of his way to point out an issue.

It's saying he will only direct the movie if the script is good enough.

Note how he, after saying that, went back to saying that he'll definitely be directing, which is the expected answer for someone in his position. That's how you act if you just want to make things sound good, while stating that there's suddenly conditions on the project for you to still do the job sounds like putting pressure on the company.

It's also quite possible that prior to the response to LIVE BY NIGHT, he did intend to direct it.

In interpreting this event, you cannot only accept SOME rumors as absolute truth, and simultaneously ignore all the others about Affleck's commitments' effect on his creative process, LIVE BY NIGHT's reception having an impact on his confidence and decision to not direct, etc.

 

[Citadel30]

To be honest, i like this better. Just to play the character of Batman in the DCEU, Affleck not only has to be ready to act in the standalone movie, but every other movie in the DCEU that he may make cameos or be a part of. This involves more than just flying in, putting on a suit, and acting a few scenes... logistically, i could see this being a knightmare for someone with demands. Also, he acting as an advisor for the DCEU if i am not mistaken... maybe even producing?? Also, he has to ensure he is taking the time to stay in shape which is at least 2-3 hours a day (doesnt seem like much, but its still a part of his daily regiment and takes time), Throw in being the actual writer and director of The Batman... and i think it just got to be too much. He was probably excited about doing it at first, but then as the DCEU matured and other projects began engulfing his future schedule , he decided he couldnt give The Batman his undivided attention to ensure it received the quality it deserved from a director's standpoint.

I could be wrong though... maybe the whole thing is a dumpster fire. t:

 

[Leo Zelinsky]

That's a bit like saying that no company should ever announce a partnership or change in roles because later that partnership may evolve or change.

No its not

 

[Mjölnir]

Then how is him doing so publicly somehow "damage control"?



At no point does Affleck make any statement that the movie will be better off for this.

It's not even implied. He makes no statement about this move's impact on the quality of the film.

That's exactly what the statement sounded like. I'm not saying that it's impossible that it's true, but it definitely sounds like one of the classic damage control lines you'd hear.

I have yet to see classic damage control statements where the creative party doesn't cite creative differences or personal/family reasons, but instead flat out says "I'm not able to do this from a creative standpoint." There is nothing usual about this. It is certainly not the norm.

And yes, saying that he'll direct the movie if the script is good enough is definitely going out of his way to point out an issue.

No, it's not. It's saying he will only direct the movie if the script is good enough.

Note how he, after saying that, went back to saying that he'll definitely be directing, which is the expected answer for someone in his position. That's how you act if you just want to make things sound good, while stating that there's suddenly conditions on the project for you to still do the job sounds like putting pressure on the company.

It's also quite possible that prior to LIVE BY NIGHT, he did intend to direct it.

In interpreting this event, you cannot only accept SOME rumors as absolute truth, and simultaneously ignore all the others about Affleck's commitments affect on his creative process, LIVE BY NIGHT's reception having an impact on his confidence and decision to not direct, etc.

You have to be just screwing with me now because you can't possibly be serious with that question. How would he step down as director and not tell anyone? Do you expect them to have a ghost director and then still bill Affleck as the director on the poster?

Of course they have to make a statement at some point that Affleck isn't directing, especially before they start looking for a new one. And making that statement sound like there's no problems and this will be better for the movie is clear damage control if there has been problems.

And yes, he definitely said it's better for the movie that he drops out as he stated that he can't do both jobs (acting and directing) at the level required. If he can't do a job on the level it's required the movie will obviously suffer. I'm getting pretty tired of you playing dumb because there's no reason you wouldn't be able to keep up with simple things like this, even if you don't agree with the interpretation (which is in itself perfectly fine). If that goes on, consider this conversation done.

 

[MbJ]

How much of the writing on BVS' script was Terrio? Was he responsible for the infamous "Martha!!!!!!" scene?

 

[FunkMiller]

Just the worst!

That post my friend, was a terrible, terrible mistake.

 

[Kane52630]

Ah yes, Akiva Goldsman. He knows how to write a Batman movie.

 

[Boom]

To be fair, Terrio was given the unfortunate task of mashing elements of TDKR, Death of Superman, Injustice, and Birthright into one screenplay. Not to mention having to introduce Wonder Woman and the Justice League on top of all of that. Conceptually, BvS was a mess of ambition.

A stand-alone Batman script provides tighter focus, I would think. It should be right in his wheelhouse.