While visiting the set of Justice League, Devin Faraci of Birth.Movies.Death got a lot of details out of a besuited Ben Affleck about his upcoming, untitled Batman movie. While the discussion was ostensibly about Batman in Zack Snyder’s Justice League movie (shooting now), Affleck, the newest caped crusader and one of the only highlights of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, had a lot to say about the nature of Batman he hopes to tease out in his own movie.
Here’s the important bit, as Affleck promises his Batman will be much more in line with the character’s “World’s Greatest Detective” facet:
“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.”
Sounds promising. So when will we see Affleck’s vision for Batman? Once again Affleck is saying all the right stuff:
“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. So that’s my, 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.”
Recent years have seen a number of tentpole summer blockbusters with major scripting issues, including Spectre, Warcraft and yes, BvS. With franchises planning release dates years in advance productions can often find themselves locked into a shooting schedule that doesn’t wait for a great script to begin filming. This looks to be the case with both Star Trek Beyond and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (though we’re all crossing our fingers that it works out for the best). If Affleck truly has the studio leverage to push the release date until he’s good and ready with his Batman story, then we could be in for something special.
Here’s hoping, Batman is owed a good movie or two after the Dark Knight Rises and BvS double-crap whammy.
