Ben Affleck has worked long and hard over the past decade to bring his career back to where he wants it to be, and it does not matter how much Warner Bros wants him to do that solo ‘The Batman‘ film, (or how much money they might throw at him), if it is not going to be done right, he is not going to be doing it at all.
Which makes sense, given the man’s history. The last time Affleck blindly trusted a studio to deliver a decent superhero role to him was in the early 2000’s when he signed on to play Matt Murdock in 20th Century Fox’s ‘Daredevil‘ adaptation. The character has a relatively large fanbase, is pretty awesome in the comics, had a great Frank Miller run in the comics, from Affleck’s point of view, it must have seemed like it would be pretty hard for a studio to screw it up. Then the movie hit, and while it did not ruin his career, it knocked him down pretty hard, so much so that even over a decade later, when he was given the role of Batman, fans still cringed at the thought of him taking on another heroic role, remembering what they saw as his “ruining” the Daredevil character all those years ago.
And now here we are in the present, with Warner Bros pushing a deadline down his neck, desperate for this Academy Award winning director to write, direct and star in ‘The Batman’ movie which they think will save the DCEU and bring credibility to their crop of movies, which so far have been panned by critics and only saved by the die-hard devotion of fans, and Ben Affleck seems to have sensed that this is not the time to bow down to studio execs desire to rush out a film. Hence his recent remarks during a recent interview with The Guardian:
“It’s not a set thing and there’s no script. If it doesn’t come together in a way I think is really great I’m not going to do it.”
And good for him. Rushing out a film just to meet some insane deadline made by a studio who frankly seems to care less about quality movies and more about pumping out something that could make them a quick buck is only going to hurt Affleck in the long run, not to mention hurt the Batman character and the DCEU in general. I have so much respect for the man for sticking to his guns and telling the studio to slow it down so they can make sure they make the best film possible.
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
