Very stoked about the news. My thoughts:
Budget
I'm surprised they're putting this much money into it. Not complaining obviously.
When Goyer mentioned a year or so ago that they were developing some lower budget movies, I assumed that meant not loading up on huge stars or marketing costs, and just releasing it quietly for DC fans and action junkies (think Dredd), and that's that.
This sounds like they're hoping this can squeeze into the public consciousness the way Guardians did. August release date and all. If handled right, and if they make the property's core appeal very apparent, I think it could. Not saying this is now going to have 100-200M$ budget (who knows yet), I just didn't expect them shelling out for Smith, Gosling, Hardy, etc, let alone all of them.
Direction
Very curious to see what direction they take this tonally, visually, etc. Will it be as darkly comedic and ott as the recent animated film? Will it be ridiculous, have fun with itself, and utilize the cheesy names? Will they harken back more to the original Ostrander stuff (with regards to line-up and tone?). Will they use the 'fun' of an R-rating? Or will they play it straight? I think a number of directions could work well.
Ayer
I'm cautiously optimistic about Ayer. Though I haven't seen Fury yet, a lot of his recent films, save End of Watch, have sort of failed to make much of an impact on me, and while he's got his strengths, a part of me wonders if this property would more easily come to life in the hands of a Guy Ritchie, or someone who's shown to be able to create something bold.
Shared-universe
Goyer initially mentioned that it would be separate, though things can always change obviously. I'm fine either way: They could do this as a way to seed the villains for the universe later on and have a lot of fun with its connection to the iconic heroes, or they could just use ridiculous d-listers that the JL movies would never touch, most of who could be offed by the end of the film, and just bank on the appeal of these A-list stars all playing scumbags on a ridiculous team. I think if done right, SS has enough of an appeal to make an impact even if there's no way for the GA to know that it comes from a DC comic book.