MOVIE NEWS – Although Ben Affleck’s Batman movie never materialised, the cancelled DCEU film would have been a unique experience, according to a massive DC insider.

DC storyboard artist Jay Oliva has more on Ben Affleck’s cancelled Batman movie. Although the new DC universe is on its way, there are still many DCEU projects that are almost done. One of these was Affleck’s Batman movie before it became Robert Pattinson’s reboot. Even though Affleck finished with The Flash, many still wondered what his own project would be to direct and write.

In a new interview with Inverse, Oliva, who has storyboarded and consulted on various DCEU projects, shared what he had to say about Affleck’s Batman movie.

While he hopes to “spill the beans” in the future, Oliva stressed that Affleck planned to “build on the story threads of the Batman mythos of the last 80 years” and approach the subject from “a new perspective”. To this day, Oliva wishes the film could have been made, as he stated:

“I can’t really say too much other than it was f****** awesome. It was the best. It was amazing. 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. I’ve worked on a lot of Batman things and what was really cool about it was, it was tying together a lot of really cool Batman storylines that had never been really explored. 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.”

“It was very clever and there were a lot of things about it that I really loved that I wish that had come to fruition.”

“It was a really great project in the beginning. Ben had to step away for personal reasons, and I totally understood, but the time that I spent with Ben working on the project was fantastic. Maybe someday I can spill the beans, but I still can’t talk about it.”

What do we know about Ben Affleck’s cancelled Batman movie?

Over the years, many details have been shared about where Affleck was going with his own film. One of the biggest concerns was that Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, would be the primary antagonist. Joe Manganiello would have played DC’s iconic villain after his debut in Justice League. Manganiello also shared that there was going to be a war between Deathstroke and the Caped Crusader, as the latter allegedly had the former’s son killed.

Affleck’s Batman film would have reportedly seen the return of several DCEU actors, including J.K. Simmons as Chief Gordon and Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth.

After being briefly touched upon in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Affleck’s solo film would have been rumoured to have fleshed out Robin’s death more fully. The latter, in this case, would have been Dick Grayson, not Jason Todd. There were also rumours that the script was influenced by various Arkham Asylum comics, with a heavy emphasis on the famous asylum.

Hopefully, the day will come when Affleck will talk about the film in more detail. After all, it has long been one of the most hyped DCEU projects of all time. Mainly because of his creative input. But based on the little information that’s already come out, it sounds like Affleck may have something incredibly cool planned for his Batman project. Sadly, Affleck’s film may never be discussed in more detail…

Source: Inverse