Did you know Ben Affleck was going to star in and direct a Batman film? Unfortunately, the film never progressed past the development stage. Now, according to someone with inside knowledge of the project, the film was awesome.
Jay Oliva is a storyboard artist and, before he left the company in 2017, he worked on many projects for DC Studios. If you have seen Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, then you have come across his work.
Oliva recently sat for an interview with Inverse where he talked about Affleck’s canceled project. Oliva couldn’t say much about the project, which is hardly a surprise. He probably signed a non-disclosure agreement during his time on it.
Regardless, the filmmaker – he has directed numerous animated films, including Green Lantern: Emerald Knights and Flashpoint Paradox – revealed that he thought the film was amazing.
Oliva said that the film had a script, although it was only a draft. In his words, “From my understanding, there were a couple of drafts of it. When I was brought on, I don’t know whether it was the second draft or something, but it was what Geoff Johns and Ben [Affleck] had shown me.”
Johns was one of the film’s writers, alongside Affleck and Chris Terrio.
Oliva has worked on many Batman projects but he found Affleck’s project especially fascinating. The reason for this, according to him, was because Affleck’s movie explored Batman mythos that we’ve never seen on screen.
He said, “Ben’s story was gonna cover something that had never really been covered in comics but was building off of storylines in the Batman mythos over the last 80 years and approaching it from a new kind of perspective.
Oliva also thought Affleck’s take was clever and apparently wanted it to come to life. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Over the years, we have heard several reasons as to why the film didn’t happen. For one, Affleck’s film was supposed to serve as a link between Justice League and Justice League 2. However, the first Justice League underwent extensive reshoots that made the storyline of his Batman film redundant.
Also, the actor had some personal issues he struggled with during that period, including alcoholism. All of these issues combined to deprive us of what Oliva thinks would have been a great take on Gotham’s defender.
After his brief cameo appearance as the Caped Crusader in The Flash, Affleck will appear in the forthcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. After that, we doubt we will see him involved with the DCU again, at least not while James Gunn and Peter Safran head DC Studios.
If you loved Affleck as Batman, you might be getting another opportunity to see him play a superhero. In June, the Gone Girl star was sighted on the set of Deadpool 3. Even though we cannot confirm his role, we strongly suspect there is a Daredevil return on the cards.
