Ben Affleck’s Next Batman Movie Would Have Reportedly Been Set In Arkham Asylum

Last month, Robert Pattinson was announced as the latest actor to play Batman, joining an illustrious group that includes Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, and, most recently, Ben Affleck. The Triple Frontier star was originally going to appear in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but he dropped out, because no one man should have all that scowl. (The actual reason is because Affleck “tried to direct a version of it… but [we] just couldn’t come up with a version,” he explained. “I couldn’t crack it and so I thought it’s time for someone else to take a shot at it.”) But if Affleck had returned for The Batman, the movie would have reportedly been set in Arkham Asylum.

While appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, cinematographer Robert Richardson, who recently worked with Quentin Tarantino on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (check out our interview), shared some details about the canceled Dark Knight film. There was a script, he said, “but not a loved script. There was a lot to do.” Much of the action would have taken place in the home for criminally insane, and Affleck was “going more into the insanity aspects. So I think you would’ve seen something a little darker than what we’ve seen in the past and more into the individual, who was inside Batman, what element may be sane and what element may actually not be sane. So he was entering into a little more of the Arkham, as you know, he’s going into where you keep everyone who was bad… It was fascinating to go to the darker side of Batman.”

There’s been talk of an entirely Arkham-set movie since at least the late 1990s, when Mark Protosevich wrote a script for Batman Unchained. It was intended to be Joel Schumacher’s follow-up to Batman and Robin and feature appearances from Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, and Riddler. But then Batman and Robin happened and… oops. An Arkham movie will likely happen one day, and I can already think of one twisted inmate.

The Batman, sans the Batfleck, is scheduled to come out June 25, 2021.

(Via Happy Sad Confused)