While the rest of the world is laughing about how the Sad Affleck meme caused Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” to climb the charts, Ben Affleck embracing the darkness, his old friend. On Tuesday, Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara confirmed that the studio is moving forward with a standalone Batman movie, which Affleck will both star in and direct.
The news was announced at CinemaCon, the annual convention for movie theater operators and retailers in Las Vegas. Tsujihara spoke of the success of Batman v Superman, which is set to cross $800 million worldwide, and how it kicked off the feature film arm of the DC Extended Universe.
“It set up a great foundation for our DC slate, which includes at least 10 movies through 2020,” Tsuijhara said to the CinemaCon crowd. “I’m also excited to know that we will be working with Ben Affleck on a stand-alone Batman movie.”
If the news of a Batman solo movie starring Ben Affleck sounds familiar, don’t worry, you’re not crazy. Last July, during Comic-Con, Nerdist reported that Ben Affleck was in talks not only to star in and direct the film, but to write the Batman standalone film as well with DC Comics’ Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns.
Lending further credence to this report is an interview in The Hollywood Reporter with WME-IMG’s co-CEOs Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitsell. In the interview, Whitsell said, “[Affleck is] contracted to do at least Justice League One and Two, so at least three times wearing the cape.” He also added, “There’s a script out there that he’s written that is a really cool [Batman] idea, so that’s out there as an option.”
Please tell me it’s called Argotham.
Apart from the news that Affleck will direct and star in the Batman standalone film, little is known about it. There is no official release date on the books, although Warner Bros. does have two untitled DC films listed on its slate for October 5, 2018 and November 1, 2019. Popular speculation seems to indicate that it will take one of those two, with the other potentially going to a Superman solo film or a Suicide Squad sequel depending on how the upcoming David Ayer-directed film performs.
Our next entry to the DC Extended Universe will be Suicide Squad, which bows on August 5, 2016.
What do you think of the news that Affleck will be directing Batman? What storyline would you like to see it follow? Let us know in the comments below.
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Image: Warner Bros.
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious) and ask about his time on the astral plane.
