Although the March 25th release date of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is fast approaching and Justice League recently went into production, it is not too soon to start thinking about the next solo Batman adventure on the big screen. After all, The Dark Knight is one of WB’s biggest moneymakers and it stands to reason that it will not be long before they let him fly solo once again.
Rumors have been swirling since last year that Ben Affleck will direct and star in such a movie, with a script co-written by he and DC Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns, author of the awesome Batman: Earth One series of graphic novels.
Entertainment Weekly recently caught up with Affleck and asked him point blank about the rumored project. He had this to say:
There’s definitely willingness and a will and a desire to make a Batman movie on the part of Warner Brothers. It’s in development, and right now I’m really focused on finishing Live By Night. That’s where my focus is, and I tend to be a one movie at a time guy. So, when I’m finished with this movie, I’ll then focus on my next movie and figure out what that will be.
He also said the following about the long-term plan:
Initially I took the idea of doing Batman in the abstract. I was sort of uncertain about it. I went in and looked at Zack’s long-term worldview and the take he had on this character. It’s within the kind of canon of Batman, and the part of the Batman canon that he chose and the way that he saw taking it long-term, that was interesting to me. And the partner that he chose in telling this story is Chris Terrio [who won an Oscar for his screenplay for Argo]. Chris Terrio wrote not only this movie, but he wrote Justice League, and he also helped the long-term vision.
The often rumored release date for the next solo Batman movie is that of a vague 2018 projection. Given Affleck’s upcoming commitments to Justice League and Live By Night, that might not seem too realistic. A 2019 or 2020 release date, however, seems perfectly reasonable to us.
