It was natural for DC and Warner Bros. to approach Ben Affleck to be the “creative man” who will co-direct and contribute to scripting the standalone movies of the new Batman franchise. He was the silver lining in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with a strong portrayal of the Dark Knight. But he stepped down due to creative differences and Matt Reeves (Planet of the Apes trilogy) was brought on board to helm the Batman solo movie. There was a period of lull in the life of Batman fans as they were upset at Ben Affleck leaving mid-way but as Matt opened up about his vision for the movie, the fans are totally supportive of him.
He said in an interview:
“I see a parallel emotionally between Caesar and Batman, in that they’re both tortured and trying to sort of grapple within themselves to try and do the right thing in a very imperfect and, to some degree, corrupt world. It’s really that emotionality that I’m interested in.”
He further shed light on how he would like to approach Batman, he added:
“In all of my films, what I try to do, in an almost Hitchcockian sense, is use the camera and use the storytelling so that you become that character, and you emphasize with that point of view. There’s a chance to do an almost noir drove, detective version of Batman that is point-of-view driven in a very, very powerful way, that will hopefully connect you to what’s going on inside of his head and inside of his heart.”
Matt revealed that he will be taking a page from Christopher Nolan’s playbook as he was inspired by the Dark Knight trilogy. He explained:
“What I love about what Nolan did was that he took the genre seriously. What studios willing to make at the moment are a very, very narrow band of films. What I discovered is that this genre has the potential to be about something more. You can use metaphors of the genre to talk about a lot.”
Recently, at MTV Happy Sad Confused podcast, Matt Reeves dropped a bombshell and revealed that he has tossed aside the entire script written by Ben Affleck and that he will start afresh. He said:
“No. It’s a new story. It’s just starting again. I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to be really cool.”
Moreover, this may just throw everything out of the window including the villain i.e Deathstroke which was the first choice of Ben Affleck as he has not been done onscreen ever. The actor Joe Manganiello had already been cast to play him. But now speculation is that the new villain may be Penguin.
The reason why Deathstroke became so popular is that of the season 2 of Arrow TV series which is till date the best ever season in the show’s history. And it’s not because of Stephen Amell particularly, instead it’s because of the season villain – Slade Wilson/Deathstroke played by Manu Bennett. He came to Starling city to avenge the death of his girlfriend Shado as he believed Oliver is responsible for her death as he chose to protect Sara Lance. He brought an entire army of Mira Kuru soldiers to Starling city who took it under their control, assassinated top officials and bribed others (including Mayor). The season was gritty, tense and edgy, villain was relatable, story was grounded and Oliver was all heroic with his bow and arrow. And then he faded into oblivion and trapped in a maximum security prison forever until season 6 last couple of episodes when Oliver went to seek his help to take down Prometheus.
Recently, Marc Guggenheim (Arrow show-runner) had an interview with Collider and explained lack of DCEU’s interest in the character. He had this to say:
“It was actually a function of… DC controls these characters, and we went through a period where DC was like, ‘We’ve got plans for Deathstroke that don’t involve Arrow.’ That changed at the end of the year.”
It is now confirmed that we will not see Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke in Batman solo movie. It was also rumored that he will feature in the Justice League but that ain’t happening either. Well, DCEU is quite a confusing place right now. CHEERS!
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