In news that will surely be discussed at some length this Saturday at Warner Bros’ expected to be massive Hall H panel, it has been reported that Ben Affleck will become the first Batman actor to write and direct the feature in which he is starring.
As a long time fan of his Best Picture-winning Argo (and my co-editor, Hannah, enjoying Gone Baby Gone), this is very welcome news. When I watch an Affleck-directed feature, I’m often reminded of Robert Redford in how gracefully his films unfurl on screen, and after the heavily stylized work, yet also grounded work of Christopher Nolan, I look forward to seeing what approach Affleck will take with the project.
Joining him to co-write is DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, who in his current role has overseen the development of the entire slate of DC-related programming on television and now looks to be moving into the film space to a greater degree. According to Deadline, the story that Affleck and Johns have cracked together has them working “in sync” and they may have their script turned in before the end of the Summer.
I for one enjoyed Johns’ take on the Batman mythos in the “Earth One” line, at least as a fairly straight-forward early Caped Crusader tale with exceptional Gary Frank art. This film is expected to begin production after Affleck’s adaptation of Live by Night.
We’ll see if this gets confirmed come Saturday, along with hopefully a few other announcements that will win over the weekend.
