Batman with Ben Affleck-- Rumors, pic, etc;

[kirk55555]

I just think it's the height of vanity for a director (or producer) to also star in the film that he is directing (or producing).

Kor

Why shouldn't they? I doubt WB would let Affleck write some fluff vanity project. Besides, he's basically guaranteed to be a better director then Snyder by default. If he could direct every Batman related movie (like Justice League), it would only help the DC films.

 

[Trekker4747]

WB has confirmed what we all have suspected-- that Ben Affleck will be getting a solo Batman ovie.

Now, as much as I didn't really care for BvS, I actually did think that Affleck made a decent Batman and am looking forward to the movie, especially if Affleck is directing rather than Snyder.

Of all the problems I have with BvS, Batfleck wasn't one of them. Hell, he was probably one of the "better" things about the movie.

 

[Ovation]

I just think it's the height of vanity for a director (or producer) to also star in the film that he is directing (or producing).

Kor

Vanity does not, in and of itself, make it a lesser production. Clint Eastwood has made a number of films wherein he takes on each of the roles you've listed (and more--score composer as well) and some have been excellent (not all, but that's true of any combination of filmmaker roles). The same goes for Woody Allen, Kenneth Branagh, Charlie Chaplin...again, not all of their attempts were successful, but a good many of them were. I have zero problems with making the attempt--but I also have zero problems criticizing such projects if they merit criticism.

 

[Christopher]

I just think it's the height of vanity for a director (or producer) to also star in the film that he is directing (or producing).

In addition to what others have said, it's not like Affleck initiated the idea of doing movies about Batman. Warner Bros. chose him for the role, and probably part of why they wanted him was his prestige as a screenwriter and director as well as an actor. They probably asked him to write and direct the movie as well as star in it. So I don't see the vanity.

 

[The Old Mixer]

There was more Frank Miller influence evident in this depiction of Batman.

The hell you say!

 

[BillJ]

Yay?

 

[davejames]

Well it's definitely something different to see an actor directing themselves while playing a major superhero. In fact it seems like such an incredible challenge I'm amazed anyone would even want to attempt it. These movies already seem like they're hard enough to make as it is.

 

[Christopher]

Well it's definitely something different to see an actor directing themselves while playing a major superhero. In fact it seems like such an incredible challenge I'm amazed anyone would even want to attempt it. These movies already seem like they're hard enough to make as it is.

Well, Bill Bixby directed the latter two Incredible Hulk revival movies (and co-directed the first, if IMDb is to be believed). Not quite on a par with a gajillion-dollar blockbuster feature, though. (And Jon Favreau directed himself as Happy Hogan in the first two Iron Man movies.)

 

[Commander Richard]

Well it's definitely something different to see an actor directing themselves while playing a major superhero. In fact it seems like such an incredible challenge I'm amazed anyone would even want to attempt it. These movies already seem like they're hard enough to make as it is.

M. Night Shyamalan could do it.

 

[eyeresist]

Now, as much as I didn't really care for BvS, I actually did think that Affleck made a decent Batman and am looking forward to the movie, especially if Affleck is directing rather than Snyder.

Surely the writer is more important? That's where most of the BvS complaints seem to be focused.

 

[Ovation]

Surely the writer is more important? That's where most of the BvS complaints seem to be focused.

In film, rather than television, the writer has far, far less influence than the director.

 

[Christopher]

Surely the writer is more important? That's where most of the BvS complaints seem to be focused.

In film, rather than television, the writer has far, far less influence than the director.

That's true. Writers have essentially zero power in the feature industry unless they're also directing or producing. Writers are seen as hired contractors whose job is to follow the instructions of the director and producer, to take their ideas and put them into script form. Movie scripts generally have multiple, mostly uncredited writers doing drafts on them, often with bits and pieces from unrelated drafts being stitched together into the final product. And directors routinely have lines changed in shooting and editing. The reason the writing is so bad in many Hollywood features is because the final scripting decisions are made by people who are not writers, and the people who are writers are helpless to protect their scripts from alteration.

There's the infamous story of the Ridley Scott Robin Hood movie. It was originally a screenplay called Nottingham that reimagined the Robin Hood story through the eyes of a heroic Sheriff of Nottingham doing detective work to hunt down the outlaw Robin Hood. Everyone loved the script and thought it was amazing. But then Scott was assigned as director and he completely tossed out almost everything about the script because he wanted to do a conventional Robin Hood movie instead. And so that brilliant screenplay everyone in the industry was gaga over got thrown in the trash and replaced with one of the dullest Robin Hood movies ever made, because directors have absolute control over the writing decisions in feature films even though they are not writers, and nobody in power in the feature industry seems to understand how totally messed up that is.

 

[davejames]

I definitely think the writing was the biggest problem with BvS over the directing... but as Snyder was clearly heavily involved in both (whether in the scripting phase or in how he edited it all together after the fact) I'm not sure it really matters much in the end.

 

[Christopher]

I definitely think the writing was the biggest problem with BvS over the directing... but as Snyder was clearly heavily involved in both (whether in the scripting phase or in how he edited it all together after the fact) I'm not sure it really matters much in the end.

But that's what I'm saying -- the writing is a problem because directors get the final say over the writing and can change anything in the script at a whim. It doesn't matter how well-written a script is if it's then put into the control of non-writers who have total freedom to change everything about it. The modern feature-film industry culture considers writing to be the most unimportant part of the process, and because of that, we have countless movies that have superb direction and action and production values but that completely fail as stories.

That's why it's promising if Affleck is both writing and directing the Batman film. That means the writer will actually be able to protect his script, because he's also the director.

 

[Jax]

I still think they made a huge mistake not doing a solo Batman movie before BvS to show more of this Batman's traumatic past that shaped him into the man we saw in BvS especially if it shown the fall of Robin. I do look forward to this solo movie as Affleck was superb in BvS.

 

[Christopher]

I still think they made a huge mistake not doing a solo Batman movie before BvS to show more of this Batman's traumatic past that shaped him into the man we saw in BvS especially if it shown the fall of Robin.

I think the problem is that they originally expected to do a second Superman movie, but then when MoS didn't perform as well as hoped, WB panicked and tried to "fix" the Superman sequel by tacking on Batman and trying to copy Marvel's shared universe. So it already had "second Superman movie" as its foundation and the rest accreted onto it.

 

[Samurai8472]

I just think it's the height of vanity for a director (or producer) to also star in the film that he is directing (or producing).

Kor

Shatner?
Stallone?
Kenneth Branagh?
Nimoy?
Jackie Chan?

 

[Gaith]

I assume this movie, if set after BvS, will be about Bruce Wayne succumbing to all the lung cancer from his actions in the attack on Metropolis. It'll be a very low-budget, artistic film, almost Gus Van Sant-like. Just a rich dude and his hetero life partner in a lake house, as one of them wastes away and dies, unloved and alone.

 

[Ovation]

Hey now. Spoilers, for the love of Pete.

 

[eyeresist]

In film, rather than television, the writer has far, far less influence than the director.

Don't make Snyder the big bad, just because the fanboys have a hate-on for him. Try to learn how these films are actually made:

Snyder is in the public eye, and probably has a fair amount of veto power, but he is not in charge of the DCU - remember Nolan and Goyer? They were on the DC team first. Nolan hired Snyder for MoS - after Del Toro and Zemeckis turned him down.

And Snyder doesn't write the scripts. He influences the stories as part of a production team based around Nolan and Goyer. For BvS, all the dramatic beats, all the dialog, were put on the page by Goyer and Terrio. There's no indication Snyder didn't stick to what they wrote (apart from the usual on-set improvisations).