It’s the mandated time of year in which to swear off our bad habits or just resolve to do better. Because they’re just like us, celebrities engage in the same kind of forward-looking behavior. Take Ben Affleck, who’s making the press rounds for his latest drama, Live By Night—drumming up support for the film was probably on his list of resolutions, nested under “win another Oscar.” A great way to do that would be to remain selective in his projects, something that Affleck tells The Guardian he intends to do.
In a wide-ranging interview, the actor-director touches on his famous friendship with Matt Damon, high-profile romantic relationships, and his critical/box office disappointments. But it wouldn’t be complete without some discussion of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, the inauspicious sophomore entry in the DCEU that Affleck nonetheless uplifted wherever he could. The interviewer eventually gets around to asking about Affleck’s tenure as the Caped Crusader, which, up until this point, included him taking the script and camera into his own hands. But the future of that solo venture looks a lot hazier now—although Affleck reiterates the idea’s been batted around, he denies the project is in any stage of development right now.
That’s the idea. But it’s not a set thing and there’s no script. If it doesn’t come together in a way I think is really great I’m not going to do it.
The news would certainly seem to contradict previous reports that he’d already penned the script, though that info was originally proffered by William Morris Endeavor’s co-CEOs Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, not the actor himself, so grain of salt and all that. Still, Affleck’s demurring does raise questions about why he bothered to unimaginatively name the film, or cast Joe Manganiello (who’s pumped about it, by the way) as Deathstroke. Then again, the two-time Oscar winner’s insistence that the project be up to snuff before he commits is something he talked about as recently as October, so at this point, it seems we won’t know a solo Batman movie’s been made until we buy tickets for it.