Warner Bros. CEO Confirms Batman Standalone Film with Ben Affleck In Development
At the Warner Bros. panel at CinemaCon in Las Vegas Tuesday evening, CEO Kevin Tsujihara first took the stage to give a general rundown of upcoming movies from the studio. After saying they have "at least 10" DC Comics movies coming in the next five years., Tsujihara finally gave studio confirmation to a long-rumored product.
"We're working with Ben Affleck on a standalone Batman movie," the CEO announced.
This is the first confirmation from a Warner Bros. executive that the movie exists, though there have been little quotes and hints here and there about the film. The rumors that Affleck would be writing and starring in a Batman film, possibly directing as well, have been going almost since he was cast in the role. More recently, it was said that he and Geoff Johns, CCO of DC Entertainment, were working on the script together.
That rumor was backed up by a talent agency CEO who said "there's a script [Affleck]'s written that's a really cool [Batman] idea." Affleck himself said that "Geoff Johns is a brilliant guy. He and I are working together on something and I really am excited about it, and I love him, he's the best."
Of course, none of this is anything but conjecture until the Studio itself makes an announcement, as Tsujihara did tonight. It's likely, then, but still not confirmed, that this will be one of the two new DC Comics based movies that were given release dates, but no character or title announcements, last week.