Ben Affleck to Direct Justice League?

Posted by on August 8th, 2012   Filed under: Action, Books/Comics, Rumours
Source: Variety

Alright, brace yourselves… this is likely to be a very polarizing proposition. Word on the street is that Ben Affleck is currently the top choice to direct a Justice League movie for Warner Brothers. It’s still very early in the process right now as we just found out back in June that Will Beall (Gangster Squad) had been hired to write a script for this potentially massive blockbuster. Christopher Nolan also recently confirmed that he would not be involved in the project in any way. Now it has been revealed that Affleck has been approached for the director’s chair and is currently mulling it over. It doesn’t necessarily seem to fit his resume, but it’s definitely an opportunity that would be difficult to turn down.

According to Variety, Affleck is the only director that has actually received a copy of Beall’s script thus far. That would seem to indicate the level of trust the studio has with him and also his own level of interest in the project. His directorial choices have been pretty solid thus far with Gone Baby Gone, The Town and now Argo coming later this year, but taking on a special effects-driven comic book movie could open a whole new can of worms.

The article implies that Affleck will only direct movies that he also stars in, but I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate; after all, he did not appear on screen in Gone Baby Gone. However, you can’t help but wonder if he might be convinced to take on another superhero role. Daredevil may have caused him to swear off tights, but this could be a chance to redeem himself. Do you think Ben Affleck is a good choice to direct Justice League movie? Would you like to see him star in it as well?



  • Derek McFarland

    Will Afflect also be playing Superman, like his character did in, Hollywoodland? I always though he would have played a decent Superman.

  • This will work fine. If he doesn’t take a role, he can just cast his brother in his place.

    I’d be on board with this.

  • Markus Krenn

    Two words….
    Why Not?

  • I think anyone in this day and age that goes “Oooohhhh, Ben Affleck? Is that really a good idea? Ben Affleck sucks!” doesn’t even know why they’re saying that. I know he had a bad couple of years nearly a DECADE ago, but the people I know that react to his name like that can’t name a movie of his that they’ve seen that they DIDN’T like. Fuck them.

    Affleck’s good at what he does, behind the camera and in front of it, and he surrounds himself with good people that can fill in the blanks, so the fact that he hasn’t directed a big special effects film shouldn’t really hurt him.

  • Kasper

    Seems like a perfect fit. Affleck has proven himself to be an excellent director so far. However, I think he should stay away from staring as another superhero. He’s an okay actor, but he has his limits.

  • Oh, and like someone else pointed out, he was a fine Superman in what was easily the best Superman film of 2006.

  • Dave

    Affleck is too good for this project now, ironically. He should keep doing his Sydney Lumet thing.

  • A step up from George Miller.

  • Jonny Ashley

    He should just channel his Sidney Lumet thing into this. Make the Justice League into a heist / murder mystery / court drama. Have one of the heroes accidentally kill someone and see how they have to deal with that.

  • One of the big DC crossovers a few years back, “Identity Crisis”, WAS a really, really good murder mystery tale that dredged up some dark stuff from the JLA’s history, but it’s DEFINITELY not a “first film” kind of story. I don’t think it’s even anything they’d tackle in their animated line.

  • I just thought of something. If they (sort of) brought back Affleck back as Superman and gave Clooney another shot at Batman, that could make for an AWESOME “Dark Knight Returns” or “Kingdom Come” some day…

  • Gepeto

    could be epic…could be

  • Gepeto

    JUSTICE LEAUGE DREAM CAST
    BATMAN CHRISTIAN BALE give him money he will come
    GREEN LANTERN IDRIS ELBA
    SUPERMAN HENRY CAVILL
    WONDER WOMAN GINA CARUNO
    FLASH SEAN WILLIAM SCOTT
    MR TERRIFIC OMAR[[WIRE]]
    THEN WE WILL HAVE A WORTHY AVENGERS EFFORT

  • Jonny Ashley

    @PlanB

    Identity Crisis is awesome. I think they need to make some ballsy decisions if they want Justice League to get people talking and make more than half of what Avengers made. Look at what happened to Green Lantern. Traditional origin story, nobody cared. Nobody (common) cares about the Justice League right now, and there’s no 5 movie build-up like Avengers had. I think they need to jump right in. If they pick Ben Affleck, that would be a good start.

  • Chris

    I have to say that the thought put into comments on this topic…on this site…are worlds different than the complaining baby-rants of a few other sites I have read from. Good form Filmjunkies. I would be interested to see this happen with Ben.

  • @Jonny

    There’s too much history there though in “Identity Crisis”. Lots of other characters that haven’t been introduced anywhere really (well, maybe in the cartoons, I don’t know) are involved, and a lot of the bigger names took a back seat. With some good build-up, it might be a great story to adapt down the line. Let’s make sure that people care about the iconic characters first. Speaking of which…

    @Gepeto

    We haven’t heard Cavill so much as say a word as Superman yet. Let’s hold off on including him in any “dream cast”, not to mention calling it an Avengers-worthy effort. Justice League is STILL a big “if”.

  • Jonny Ashley

    PlanB, you’re right, but I think the past decade has shown a lot of the bad that can happen when the filmmakers bow to the fans and stick strictly to the source material. There has been plenty of good too, to be sure, but I just want to see Affleck get a script that he can play to his strengths, source material be damned.

    They don’t need to make an “Identity Crisis” movie, but the fact that the JLA have had to deal with a situation like that before, leaves hope that they can make that kind of story. And by hope I know it’s probably a snowball’s chance in hell.

  • Self-insert cameo? Is Daredevil Marvel or DC? I dunno. Guess I should consult http://www.google.com. That’s a good website I hear.

    Anyhow, I am intrigued by this considering that the thing most people liked about The Dark Knight was that it played like a crime drama and Affleck has made his name directing… crime dramas. I wonder if they are looking to take this in a Nolan-esque ‘realistic’ route.

    Either way, it’s interesting and I wouldn’t mind terribly if it happened.

  • Annnd damn… It’s Marvel. Crossover? :P

  • In the comics, there have been a couple of DD/Batman crossovers that weren’t all that special, but there was a pretty awesome Punisher/Batman one-shot by Chuck Dixon (who’s written a lot of both characters) and John Romita Jr. (a career Marvel guy) that was pretty tremendous. There was an earlier one that had Punisher and Batman’s replacement that’s worth avoiding. Not that these have a single thing to do with anything relating to Affleck, but the Dixon/Romita joint was a high-quality story about a couple of realistic superheroes beating the living shit out of each other, so check it out! Give a hoot, read a book!

  • mark

    DareDevil would never have a part in the premiere justice league flick. and they’ve yet to do wonderwoman, or the flash? are these still in the works?

  • Is this JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE? That comic was awesome! Batman shoyuld be separate. Why wouldn’t Superman just fly in and help him? Make movies that matter?