There has been a lot of activity in recent weeks on the solo Batman film project happening at Warner Bros as part of their DC movie universe. While overall Batman v Superman fell short in its critical reception, one of the highlights of the film was Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne.
Following the release of Dawn of Justice it was announced that a new Batman solo film was on the way, with a working title of The Batman to be directed by Ben Affleck. However while Ben is still attached to the film in the lead role, he’s no longer at the helm. So, who is brave enough to follow-up Christopher Nolan’s Batman films with a Batman film of their own?
There were a few options speculated about over the last week, including names such as George Miller, Matt Reeves, Denis Villeneuve, amongst others. However it’s just been announced that Matt Reeves, the man behind Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Cloverfield has been offered the big job. With a targeted 2019 release date, there isn’t a huge amount of time for getting this project back on track so Warners. will be keen to lock in Reeves asap.
To add further turmoil to pre-production of the project, since Affleck’s departure it’s also been revealed that the script has been re-written or at least revised by Chris Terrio, who previously worked on Argo, Batman v Superman, and is credited on the Justice League film. A new director may bring an entirely different vision for the film to what was previously being worked on, so there’s still a fair amount of uncertainty surrounding where this is heading. If Reeves takes on the job we should be hearing soon something about his take on it all.
Early drafts of the script supposedly focused on several villains including Deathstroke and Joker, taking inspiration from the Batman: Arkham video game series for the tone of the story. Whether this will remain the creative direction for the film, time will tell, The Batman film is still very much in a state of flux so we’ll see what comes next!
