Fool me once…or twice…
Ben Affleck is busy in production on Justice League, where he is functioning as both one of the leads and an executive producer. The actor has taken on a larger role in Warner Brothers' DC Cinematic Universe following his turn as Batman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the shake-ups in the wake of that film's release.
Perhaps most notably he's set to star in and direct WB's solo Batman movie from a script he's co-writing with DC Films' Geoff Johns, but he won't do so until he thinks it'll be one he can be proud of.
Good for him.
A group of reporters recently visited the set of Justice League where Affleck was present to give an update on the progress on the Batman movie. IGN reports that when asked about a release, Affleck conceded that he's not yet ready to move forward, joking that he'd learned from past mistakes about making movies from incomplete scripts.
“I think they [Warner Bros.] have a date for it,” Affleck said. “Although, I don”t know if I would necessarily be able to make that date because I don”t have a script that”s ready yet. So that”s my — my timetable is I”m not going to make a movie until there”s a script that I think is good because, I”ve been on the end of the things when you make movies when you have a script that”s not good yet and it doesn”t pan out.”
Experience is a brutal teacher, and it sounds like between Daredevil and the critical response to Batman V Superman Affleck's had enough of suiting up for a film that's undercooked.
“I have a script, we”re still working on it,” the actor added. “And I”m not happy enough with it yet to actually go out there and make a Batman movie, for which I have the highest of standards, I would say. That”s something that would have to pass a very high bar for me. It”s not just like, 'Yeah, that might be fun, let”s go try this out.'”
Affleck's an astute and talented director and if says that story is not ready to go before cameras yet then we can only applaud him for him for being honest about it and waiting.
It's also interesting to note that he's disputing Warner Brothers' date and operating under his own timeframe.
We'll keep you updated as details about the DC slate emerge.