• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Today in DCEU: Affleck reportedly wants out as Batman

Status
Not open for further replies.
If he left before Justice League that would make his working at Warners again in the near future a pretty sketchy situation, I'd think.

But then again, I guess that would depend on whatever management succeeds Tsujihara after this whole mess is washed away.
 
What was the point? Seriously?

If he reported the story as completely factual, then by all means he deserves to get blasted, especially if it ends up not being true. The fact that he gave two examples of being burned in the past and gave a huge disclaimer about this rumor from "reliable" sources made sharing his story ok for me.

The point is just like any other points we have here on gaf, being super speculative on nerdy shit I suppose lol. But yeah, it looks like it's doing more damage than fun speculations.
 
I don't think you will get official confirmation before Justice League comes out if it's true.

Would a flashpoint work, maybe Superman is dead until then and you change the shit characters and replace Affleck at that point, hopefully Cavill too....and the Joker...and Killer Croc...and just reboot the damn thing but hire the same actors for some roles like Margot which people seem to like but undecided myself.
 
We need something like this;

latest


A cinematic universe that captures the spirit of DC
 
Busty's posts are always pro-WB/anti-other studios, which is unusual even for super fans. That's why I was curious.

My posts aren't always 'pro WB'. it's just the amount of fake news that surrounds the DCU is ludicrous. The Internet loves to savage whatever appears to have 'blood in the water' (and I've indulged in it myself from time to time) but the amount of threads that have appeared on GAF because of some nonsense non rumour is incredible.

The idea that, NINE MONTHS BEFORE RELEASE, all these people are claiming that Justice League is a disaster and that they've seen Wonder Woman is ridiculous.

Who knows, they both could be terrible (I was told by someone that Rogue One was 'unsalvageable' so things change) but the idea that WB is like a sieve with all bloggers have the inside track at a studio like Warners is just pure fiction.
 
If he reported the story as completely factual, then by all means he deserves to get blasted, especially if it ends up not being true. The fact that he gave two examples of being burned in the past and gave a huge disclaimer about this rumor from "reliable" sources made sharing his story ok for me.

If his story is so unreliable that he's going to be mad about people sharing it outside of his show, then he needs to not be sharing it on his show. That's just basic logic, man! It's not "The industry's" fault that he said something into a microphone on camera that he doesn't feel like he can back. "The industry" didn't make him do that. He just did it himself.

That's a self-control problem. That's not an industry problem. And it doesn't matter how many qualifiers or disclaimers he shoves in front of it. It's coming out of his mouth, on his show, into his microphone. That's on him. And if he didn't want it to be on him, then he should have shut the fuck up.

Nothing about any of this is being unfair to him. Whether it's true or not. Hell, it doesn't really matter if it's true or not, because what makes his behavior ridiculous is that he's blaming people for sharing a story he told on his widely viewed talkshow.

This wasn't a secret he spilled in the corner of a party. This wasn't an email exchange with a friend or two. He was on camera. He then said he believes it. And then as soon as it got shared, he tried to not only distance himself from the story, he got mad at people for believing and spreading around a thing he believes to be true.

If he wants to scoop, then he needs to stand by his statements and take lumps when he fucks up. Nobody bats 1.000. But if this part of "the industry" freaks him out then he needs to stop fucking with it. Like he said he was going to last year.

A cinematic universe that captures the spirit of DC

Ugh, the way they treated that book for the direct-to-dvd movie.

Who knows, they both could be terrible (I was told by someone that Rogue One was 'unsalvageable' so things change)

Or the dude who told you that was gargling bullshit.
 
If he left before Justice League that would make his working at Warners again in the near future a pretty sketchy situation, I'd think.

But then again, I guess that would depend on whatever management succeeds Tsujihara after this whole mess is washed away.

I just cannot see a situation where Affleck announces he's done as Batman NINE months before Justice League comes out unless A) his relationship with the studio is now untenable and he's done entirely or B) some personal issue has gotten to the point where everything else has to take a back seat.

I just cannot see a situation where he leaves knowing that he has to go and promote Justice League in October. How would that even work practically speaking?
 
What happened then?

They got fed a line of horseshit as to what Snoke looked like, and kept hammering on it during the run up to the film - they bit hard on the "Snoke is Plagueis" shit, and were discounting anything that didn't feed that narrative.

Someone got the art of book early, and took a pic of the Snoke design in it. That started to circulate. They denied it was real, and continued to push faked imagery as to what Snoke was going to look like.

Eventually they had to mea culpa, which led to, I believe, Campea saying "look, we're never fucking with scoops again. We botched this hard, and that's 100% on us."
 
Another one, this time from Ben Holliday of Den of Geek.

https://twitter.com/bholliday/status/831537547448836096


I have no clue on his track record.

This is lovely. The DCEU trainwreck is really mind boggling, especially after Marvel has basically given WB the blueprint on how to do it right.


I didn't know that about Whitta; must have been before my time here. Creators should mostly stay off of social media. Busty's posts are always pro-WB/anti-other studios, which is unusual even for super fans. That's why I was curious.

There also used to be a good chunk of game developers on GAF until they got ran off as well.
 
They got fed a line of horseshit as to what Snoke looked like, and kept hammering on it during the run up to the film - they bit hard on the "Snoke is Plagueis" shit, and were discounting anything that didn't feed that narrative.

Someone got the art of book early, and took a pic of the Snoke design in it. That started to circulate. They denied it was real, and continued to push faked imagery as to what Snoke was going to look like.

Eventually they had to mea culpa, which led to, I believe, Campea saying "look, we're never fucking with scoops again. We botched this hard, and that's 100% on us."

Weren't they(collider) also recently the source of the Wonder Womans a mess story?
 
Because they think Geoff Johns = "Someone competent."

What's funny is that when they first thought they were going to start their DCEU, it was w/ Green Lantern. They had Berlanti in charge.

And then they fucking smothered him and essentially shunted him back to television. Ruined his screenplay, which ruined the movie.

Then he went off and basically created a cinematic universe spread over multiple seasons of television for going on 5 straight years.

It's painful to think of the movie that might have been, if it had not been so fucked with.
 
Industry gossip is still gossip. Some guy who is already a cynical mess because he's neck deep in the busywork end of the business is probably going to judge the latest piece of big-budget product a little more harshly than others might. Which would lead to someone who is absolutely on the inside leading people down a somewhat incorrect path.

I'm not saying someone didn't tell you that Rogue One was "unsalvageable," I'm saying just because a guy works for a movie studio doesn't mean their subjective opinion on the shit they're complaining about is infallible. Someone building sets and pushing the carts around the lunch break doesn't automatically become the best judge of the final product just because they were there as part of it was being made in front of them.

On set production-gossip tends to the negative as it is because making movies is rarely fucking fun.

"Guy said he saw X shooting Y and so that means Z is definitely a part of the story" = something I'm putting weight in.

"Guy says he saw X shooting Y and thought X was drunk and there's no way this performance is going to work in the final edit" = maybe not putting that much weight into it.

"Guy says he saw X doing 10 takes of a scene from a comic he recognized and it's nothing like HE would have done it, they're going to ruin everything." = yeah, not putting a bunch of weight on that at all.
 
Ben is a cool guy though, he deserves better than this and after Justice League stinks up the place even more he'll be looking for the exit.
 
Nah.

Keep Johns and his shitty, continuity-choked fetishes away from these films.

Let Shazam be its own thing over at New Line for a couple movies. Let Harry Potter's Dumbledore Prequels carry some of that weight. Let the Lego line bear some of that blockbuster burden.

Give yourself 3 or 4 years to seriously plan out a general idea as to what tone you want all these movies to have, what stories you want to tell with these characters, and get some quality scripts LOCKED before you start moving forward.

THEN announce the return of the DC Universe to the big screen.

(make them big-budget family friendly animated epics. Sidestep all of the negatives of live-action adaptation while keeping every single positive of superhero storytelling)

Sit on those IPs for 4 years when Superhero movies are at their most popular and your rival/competition is taking full advantage of that fact? I just can't see them doing that.

Who knows how long their popularity will stay this high? I think even Marvel could see themselves losing some of their audience if they don't execute post-infinity war MCU well.
 
Wasn't Campea the dude who was capping for Jamie Alwxander getting the wonder woman part, and Gal was announced dude was super Salty
 
Weren't they(collider) also recently the source of the Wonder Womans a mess story?

Nah, that was Sasha on the Schmoes Know show which is in the same building as the collider crew but not part of collider I think. Also that was merely hearsay not a scoop or news they brought.
 
Sit on those IPs for 4 years when Superhero movies are at their most popular and your rival/competition is taking full advantage of that fact? I just can't see them doing that.

The "rival competition" aspect is fairly overplayed. Most of your DC vs. Marvel bullshit is just that: Carny pro-wrestling bullshit promoted by each company as a means to keep gullible marks buying books and promote industry health. 80% of the people who write/edit these stories move through the revolving doors at the big two every other event as it is. There's no real rivalry.

The only reason it still carries weight is that the gullible little boys who grew up with it are in charge of the enthusiast press now, and can't think of a way to discuss the industry without looking at it through that prism.

"Sit on those IPs" isn't really what I'm suggesting, either. Shazam movies would still go forward.

Part of the problem is fucking thinking of them as IPs first and not STORIES that will endear themselves to an audience.

What you're looking at right now is an example of looking at a film series as a means to exploit intellectual property first and foremost.

People gotta stop thinking of these things in those terms. There's no reason for viewers/readers to consume this material with an executive producer's mindset.
 
I just cannot see a situation where Affleck announces he's done as Batman NINE months before Justice League comes out unless A) his relationship with the studio is now untenable and he's done entirely or B) some personal issue has gotten to the point where everything else has to take a back seat.

I agree, the timing would seem off. But what are the (behind the scenes) plans for DCEU? For example, maybe he already has/had obligations regarding the undated Batman film or different DCEU plans. He just stepped down as the director of Batman, so I assume they are currently planning that film (as of now, he is still the lead and producer). His obligations in regards to preparing for the role, filming etc. could be earlier than the actual release of JL. Dropping out of the DCEU prior to JL could mean that he has an open schedule again.

Now this is pure hypothetical and I am not saying the above is true or even to be expected. All I am saying is I can think of examples why people drop out of projects early. Films can take several years to realise.

(I agree that him dropping out of DCEU prior to JL seems unlikely).
 
Does Affleck have a three-picture deal?

If he's informed WB that he will not be renewing his contract, maybe they decide not to do a stand-alone Batman movie and decide to close out the DCEU with the big JL movie against Darkseid?

Originally, Affleck's deal was for BvS and two Justice League movies (according to this agent, who I think is Ari Emmanuel?). That was then extended to include a solo Batman movie and I guess Suicide Squad.

Affleck has fulfilled half of his deal so far, so to try to get out of it now would probably require a big penalty, but who knows.
 
Was the deal extended or just reworked to include the standalone movie after Justice League was turned into a single film?

If so it might be that he's trying to say his work on Suicide Squad should count towards the three-picture deal, and that with Justice League completed he's fulfilled the contract. if it wasn't extended and just reworked.

If it was extended then yeah, there'd be a fight. The results of which might not be announced until after Justice League opens, but could be arrived at prior.
 
My posts aren't always 'pro WB'. it's just the amount of fake news that surrounds the DCU is ludicrous. The Internet loves to savage whatever appears to have 'blood in the water' (and I've indulged in it myself from time to time) but the amount of threads that have appeared on GAF because of some nonsense non rumour is incredible.

I don't think there have been many DCEU rumors that have proven to be false. A lot of the time they're hearsay from nobodies suggesting the upcoming movie is a mess, which is not an unreasonable rumor. Even the gossip in the OP is now being heard elsewhere, so there might be truth to it.

Also, I noticed how you didn't answer my original question.
 
Assuming this is all true and Affleck does manage to get out, I wonder if WB will have learned a lesson and recast someone more in line with their other DCEU stars, aka someone younger and less established who will be far less likely and/or capable of balking at the work demands of a role like Batman. After all, one of the biggest factors separating Affleck from his DCEU costars was the fact that he didn't need this meal ticket when he signed on.
 
Was the deal extended or just reworked to include the standalone movie after Justice League was turned into a single film?

If so it might be that he's trying to say his work on Suicide Squad should count towards the three-picture deal, and that with Justice League completed he's fulfilled the contract. if it wasn't extended and just reworked.

If it was extended then yeah, there'd be a fight. The results of which might not be announced until after Justice League opens, but could be arrived at prior.

Patrick Whitesell, who is actually Affleck's agent and not Emmanueal (whoops), seemed to indicate that Batman was an additional option on top of to the two Justice Leagues:

"He's contracted to do at least Justice League One and Two, so at least three times wearing the cape," he says, adding, "There's a script that he's written that is a really cool [Batman] idea, so that's out there as an option."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ben-affleck-has-written-his-879355

I don't know enough about contracts to know whether it's legally allowed to swap one movie for another (JL2 for The Batman) after a contract has been signed. And even if Snyder and WB opted to ditch the two-parter idea, there was still going to be a Justice League 2 eventually -- which Snyder was going to do after JL1 until WB put the movie on hold to prioritize Batman -- in which case, I'd think they'd want to keep Affleck on contract for it anyway. But, who knows.

If Affleck actually wants out as Batman, nine months before Justice League is going to come out, I don't know how the hell studio spins that. That means the entire year where you're trying to build up hype for this movie, especially at Comic Con and the press tour in October/November, the shadow of Affleck leaving will hang over everything.
 
They could always make The Batman basically set in his early years with a young actor, then flip back to Affleck for Justice League 2.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom