Reports emerged recently citing “serious problems with the scripting” for Ben Affleck’s The Batman movie. In fact, it was Bret Ellis who blew fuel in to the fire.
“I was having dinner with a couple of executives who know other executives who are working on the [forthcoming] Batman movie, The Batman,” Ellis said. “And they were just telling me that there are serious problems with the script.”
To further support this rumor, Affleck is often cited as saying he too is not happy with the script. This warping of his words comes from a Collider interview where Affleck said;
“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 … 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.”
This was extremely early in the process and came out not that long after Affleck’s first outing as Bruce Wayne / Batman in Warner Brothers’ Suicide Squad film. Again, at this stage in the development process this is entirely within the norm and not a reason to start sounding the alarm to man battle stations and launch flairs for a DCEU rescue.
In fact, all Affleck was talking about was that he has high standards for the movie with his name attached to it. He wants it to be good. period.
Now, we have Joe Manganiello, who will be playing Batman’s antagonist Slade Wilson – also known as – Deathstroke in the movie saying the movie is “….going to take this franchise in a direction that I think a lot of people are going to be really happy about.” Manganiello praised the movie during his Mark Madden, Super Genius podcast interview this week.
He goes on to say; “I think the audience is going to be surprised, because it’s a road that no one’s really gone down that’s completely integral to who Batman is,” and then “I think it’s gonna be refreshing, but at the same time completely familiar. But it’s going to take this franchise in a direction that I think a lot of people are going to be really happy about.”
About the Affleck solo Batman film, he also had to say the movie is “gritty and action-packed and cerebral and all of those elements that people love about Batman.”
So, is the script or the movie or the DC Entertainment Universe as a whole in jeopardy? Doubtful. Quite the contrary, in fact, it looks like the Snyder-verse will be evolving to the benefit of DC and movie fans everywhere.
