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Variety: Ben Affleck steps down as director of 'The Batman'

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Matt Reeves would be fine, actually. I pick what he puts down.

Hopefully they also bring on a great fight choreographer. It really does make a difference. John Wick would have been just another action movie without Chan Stahelski and John Leitch. Gareth Evans would just be a white dude in Indonesia without Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian.
 
So the Mark Hughes piece is up and here are some interesting quotes.





http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhug...ts-as-the-batman-movie-director/#583b574f7a7a

I'm increasing starting to believe Bobby Roberts' theory. If Justice League under-performs the DCEU is basically done with the possible exception of Suicide Squad sequels/spinoffs.


wait wait Gavin Belson directed Captain Fantastic? wow, good for him. To think I knew him as the guy Patrick Bateman wanted to strangle in the mensroom.

Peter Berg would be a bad choice. Gavin O'Conner is hit or miss, and I don't feel strongly about his hits, though I like The Accountant more than most.

His bit on Armie Hammer playing a younger Batman, whether it's his speculation or not, it's not the first time I've heard it in the past month.
 

Sephzilla

Member
I honestly think the remaining DCEU movies are in a holding pattern until they see how Wonder Woman and Justice League perform. If Justice League in particular underperforms like BvS did, then I totally think they'll reboot and try again.
 

y2dvd

Member
If JL underperforms, how much more of an embarrassing hole will the DCEU be in? Do they whimper to the finish with the rest of the slated movies or do they cut their losses and...no clue what to do from there.
 

Xe4

Banned
Shame. I was actually looking forward to it because of Afleck's directing. Now I really don't care either way.
 

Xater

Member
If JL underperforms, how much more of an embarrassing hole will the DCEU be in? Do they whimper to the finish with the rest of the slated movies or do they cut their losses and...no clue what to do from there.

I would bet that Cyborg is one of the first things they will cut.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
If JL underperforms, how much more of an embarrassing hole will the DCEU be in? Do they whimper to the finish with the rest of the slated movies or do they cut their losses and...no clue what to do from there.

BvS was ravaged by both critics and the audience. B is essentially what Daredevil and Catwoman got back in the day. And yet Suicide Squad still opened strong. I think it was mostly because of Harley Quinn and Joker. People wanted to see those characters.

I have a feeling that people want to see Aquaman and Flash make their first appearance on the big screen.I also doubt that it will be blasted by the critics. they will make it a very safe and formulaic movie to appease the critics.
 

Apt101

Member
They had so much awesome inspiration to draw from for the cinematic universe, and somehow seemed to miss almost all of it.

There aren't many parallels. Superman doesn't act like Superman. Lex Luthor was LULZ. Wonder Woman captured the essence of the character, but Gal Gadot doesn't appear to be very good. Batman works, as it's really difficult to not get Batman, but they changed his core ethics so much it may as well be some new character (though I admit, I really enjoyed him in BvS). And speaking of Gotham, Jesus Fucking Christ this new Joker. Cringe fucking city.

Just imagine what could have been.
 
If JL underperforms, how much more of an embarrassing hole will the DCEU be in? Do they whimper to the finish with the rest of the slated movies or do they cut their losses and...no clue what to do from there.

My prediction; if Justice League fails critically and under-performs like BvS, Affleck is done. I can't imagine Flash and Aquaman ever getting made after that (Cyborg is never getting made already). At the same time, though, Suicide Squad did fucking great at the box office, so it's hard to imagine there not being a sequel. And there's still the chance Wonder Woman turns out well. If that happens, I don't know what happens. What do you do if the B-team is outshining the main attractions?
 

Sephzilla

Member
My prediction; if Justice League fails critically and under-performs like BvS, Affleck is done. I can't imagine Flash and Aquaman ever getting made after that (Cyborg is never getting made already). At the same time, though, Suicide Squad did fucking great at the box office, so it's hard to imagine there not being a sequel. And there's still the chance Wonder Woman turns out well. If that happens, I don't know what happens. What do you do if the B-team is outshining the main attractions?

I think if JL fails then Snyder's major movie career is effectively done. The dude would have been handed three movies that should have been financial slam dunks and yet he didn't deliver.
 

Alienous

Member
BvS was ravaged by both critics and the audience. B is essentially what Daredevil and Catwoman got back in the day. And yet Suicide Squad still opened strong. I think it was mostly because of Harley Quinn and Joker. People wanted to see those characters.

I have a feeling that people want to see Aquaman and Flash make their first appearance on the big screen.I also doubt that it will be blasted by the critics. they will make it a very safe and formulaic movie to appease the critics.

The amount of people who care about those films depend on Wonder Woman & Justice League. If those don't do well Flash and Aquaman will do significantly worse than they would otherwise. Those characters aren't a draw like Batman, Joker and to a lesser extent Wonder Woman are.
 

Blader

Member
I wouldn't mind if WB put out all in all James Wan for JL 2, guy had a master ensemble F7 to his credit

Huh. I hadn't thought of that but that's an interesting choice.

My prediction; if Justice League fails critically and under-performs like BvS, Affleck is done. I can't imagine Flash and Aquaman ever getting made after that (Cyborg is never getting made already). At the same time, though, Suicide Squad did fucking great at the box office, so it's hard to imagine there not being a sequel. And there's still the chance Wonder Woman turns out well. If that happens, I don't know what happens. What do you do if the B-team is outshining the main attractions?

There is no chance of Aquaman getting canned regardless of what happens to Justice League; the movie will already be starting post by the time JL is out.
 
Matt Reeves is both a realistic choice and a genuinely great option. But I wonder if Affleck's lack of enthusiasm for the current DCCU after BvS (pure speculation on my part) could end up hurting the project no matter what.

I would bet that Cyborg is one of the first things they will cut.

Since we now live in Bizarro world anyway, Cyborg will probably end up saving the DCCU along with Aquaman and these two will headline a Justice League Detroit movie that will cross the 2 billion dollars mark. Believe.
 

Platy

Member
Went to talk to a friend about this and she instantly "wasn't him that said that would only direct if there was a good script ?" LOL

This movie is so going to suck
 

Sephzilla

Member
But he's an iconic character.

qHM7SMt.gif
 
Reboot this whole mess.

Drop Snyder.
Drop current movies.

Do All Star Superman as a movie.

There, I just saved Warner.
We live in a pretty bleak world right now, we need optimistic escapism.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
People don't want Peter Berg? That shootout in Patriot's Day was better than anything in Suicide Squad. And he makes an effort at humanizing the characters, something these movies need.
 
All they have to do is copy the story from the Arkham games and people will be pleased. It ain't that hard.

Seriously. I don't think the Rocksteady games have great stories (Origins' is fantastic though) but the premise is strong. Batman stuck in Arkham and having to fight his way out while stopping the Joker. The Raid + Dredd + Batman = true comic-book happiness.

Reboot this whole mess.

Drop Snyder.
Drop current movies.

Do All Star Superman as a movie.

There, I just saved Warner.
We live in a pretty bleak world right now, we need optimistic escapism.

All Star Superman might be my second or third favorite superhero story of the 21st century but it would absolutely never work as a movie. The animated version proved that. It was meant to be a comic and nothing else. You would have to change it drastically in order to make it work and it would end up unrecognizable.
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
I'm surprised he wants his name attached to it at all. BvS was the worst incarnation of Batman I have ever seen. I'd take my dark knight with suit nipples over gun toting and merry murder any day.
 
All they have to do is copy the story from the Arkham games and people will be pleased. It ain't that hard.

Meh. It'd be interesting for something different. But, I really dislike "the longest night of Batman's life!" story lines.

I'm surprised he wants his name attached to it at all. BvS was the worst incarnation of Batman I have ever seen. I'd take my dark knight with suit nipples over gun toting and merry murder any day.

Nah. Batman, Bruce, and Alfred were great in BvS, outside of the whole slaughtering mother fuckers like it ain't no thing part. The problem was everything else. If he walks, that's literally the one good thing the DC movies have going down the drain.
 
If JL underperforms, how much more of an embarrassing hole will the DCEU be in? Do they whimper to the finish with the rest of the slated movies or do they cut their losses and...no clue what to do from there.
They could just do a Crisis movie and reboot it while keeping most of the cast intact.
 

OldRoutes

Member
Yeah. Absolutely. B&R was camp and stupid, but BvS fundamentally changes the character while trying to remain a serious incarnation of Batman.

The character changes throughout Batman V Superman ; he starts like he's out of control, and by the end it's clear that he has made some character progress.

That's not the first time the Batman character went through this transition, and I would expect a significantly different Batman in Justice League.
 
Batman is a million different things to a million different people. The only thing that seemed out of the norm in BvS was him killing the shit out of people. But, even that's not some new ground, especially on film where we had Burton's Batman blowing people up with a smile on his face.

Outside of that, he seemed like your typical paranoid ass hole Batman. The one thing that really bugged me is his ability to take point blank shots to the head. Fuck that shit.
 
All Star Superman might be my second or third favorite superhero story of the 21st century but it would absolutely never work as a movie. The animated version proved that. It was meant to be a comic and nothing else. You would have to change it drastically in order to make it work and it would end up unrecognizable.

Doesn't help that All-Star Superman is a death of Superman story (done right).

Yeah. Absolutely. B&R was camp and stupid, but BvS fundamentally changes the character while trying to remain a serious incarnation of Batman.

Memories people have of Batman & Robin lack maybe 60% of that movie. If It actually leaned into the camp, there could've been something there.

People don't want Peter Berg? That shootout in Patriot's Day was better than anything in Suicide Squad. And he makes an effort at humanizing the characters, something these movies need.

He's OK. He's just not an exciting choice for Batman.

If Warners is looking at him for a DC movie, he can reunite with The Rock for Black Adam. Work some of Hancock in there. You got a stew going.
 

Ridley327

Member
Gareth Evans doing an R-Rated Batman movie set in Arkham Asylum would be a dream come true.

Of course, something as cool as this will never happen.

IIRC, Evans isn't terribly interested in doing "big" films and prefers to go out on his own to make what he wants. I know he's been trying to do something more mainstream to help get funding for both Blister and Raid 3, but he's still thinking small-scale for that. The only way I can see him going for a superhero film is if he got full creative control and was given as much time as he needed to film it, which I don't see happening at all.
 
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