DthRdrX

I said this movie would be pushed back and probably turn out a disaster, yep.

majorjoe23

I think you mean

DthRdrX

I'm thinking Ben wanted more time to work on the script, as he previously stated he would not rush it until it was perfect, but WB wants the movie made.

DthRdrX

Nice! Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!

fumanstan

Probably didn't help that Live By Night wasn't so hot, so attaching himself to something that he knows will have the spotlight after having to deal with all the negativity around Batman V Superman would be rough as a director.

Mike86

Agreed. Affleck probably wanted to take the time to make a great film but Warner wants to fast track it so they can make their money because fuck quality. The only hope that this film now has in my opinion is getting a great director to replace Affleck. Someone like Fincher possibly. I have to wonder if a big name like that would even want to attach themselves to something like this at this point though.

Obi-Wanma

Mel Gibson directed himself in Braveheart, which was a $72 Million budget in 1995, which equals about 116 Million in today's dollars.

DaveyJoe

And if Mel Gibson isn't the portrait of mental stability, I don't know Klaxar, the general of the moon men.

Artman

I think there are still some very sensible reasons for this... Ben just did a 60m dollar movie that bombed, lost the whole budget and then some...that was his biggest budget to date right? Even though he has an office on WB's lot...you can imagine his hesitancy to take on a 150M+ movie...even if it is Batman. Maybe he just doesn't want to do a big budget film...

The very real physical limitations of being in the Batman suit...hard enough to act and direct...but nobody has done it being in a costume that limits even the most basic movements...how practical would it be for him to come over in costume and look at the shots?

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

Thats the same thing I thought of at the end of Dark Knight Rises

Mike86

It's possible that Live By Night flopping pushed him and Warner over the edge of him dropping out but I don't think that's the entire reason. He seemed like he really wanted to do this film until the past month or so when he would get irritated by getting asked questions about it. Then he comes out and says he's doing it but just needs more time to work on it a couple weeks ago to suddenly announcing he's not doing it. Something doesn't jive there if you ask me. I'm guessing that there's been talks between him and Warner for quite a while about this needing to be out soon and he's felt pressured which is why he's probably been getting upset over being asked about it. I doubt that it just suddenly came about that he felt he couldn't handle directing and starring. It was probably more of a disagreement on when to get the film out and both parties are now trying to save face. At this point with amount of fuck ups with these films I'm not willing to give Warner the benefit of the doubt.

robin2099

I am shocked, shocked that you of all people would be pessimistic about a DC movie.

As for Affleck, what probably happened was a lot of things. Live by Night bombed and he has taken that hard, the stress of directing a huge movie in costume by himself, and the fact that if it underperforms with him writing, directing, acting and producing then his career is officially dead. Plus he probably wanted a longer pre-production schedule then WB wanted so it makes sense.

Mike86

Give me a reason not to be. I'm a DC fan just not of the current films. They've made three straight mediocre to bad films. If that's not enough the behind the scenes drama seems to continue on upcoming and in development films. They're a mess at the moment and it's blind fanboyism to not see that.

dex14

I'm going to guess Gavin O'Connor will replace since Affleck just worked with him.

Wild guess... George Miller.

Obi-Wanma

Paging Brett Ratner...

Kal-El

Here's my theory on what happened here: With the Flash getting a page one re-write that probably pushed its release date out of next year, that leaves WB with only one movie on their DC slate for 2018--Aquaman. They either don't have enough confidence in that one or they feel it's not enough to just release one DCEU movie so they probably pressured Batfleck to have this out by next year. And he didn't want to.

Can't really blame them. They needed something to stand up to Avengers Infinity War and Aquaman wasn't going to be that movie. So of course they double down on the best thing to come out of their horrible trilogy so far--Batman.

redrum

Forgot about Matt Reeves, think he would do a great job

Mike86

I think at this point for the film to work its critical that they get a director who's going to work well with Affleck. I'm sure Affleck already has some ideas in mind about how he wants the script to go and whatnot so if there's someone brought on board that he's going to clash with over creative decisions it'll obviously be a bad thing. Hopefully Warner doesn't decide to just hire some random director they can get for cheap to do the job. Someone like a David Fincher who Affleck has worked with would be good. Plus a Fincher directed Batman film could be amazing if they could get him to do it. A guy like Matt Reeves probably would be alright too.

robin2099

Oh I see it. You can say it's blind fanboysim to wait and see and your right. But by the same exact token it's blind fanboyism to immediately go "ZOMG this random person knows another random person who said the next DC movie sucks!" I must go and let me hatred of something which I have not seen yet be known!". Calm down. Believe it or not, projects die down in Hollywood all the time, creators leave all the time(yes even at Marvel) it happens. We just don't know about because they aren't click bait like the DCU movies are.

Draven

In his defense, DCU does not have the track record to automatically get the benefit of the doubt when things go wonky behind the scenes. Like with Ant-Man - I was willing to trust them to figure it out when Wright left and we got a fun movie after all. I understand if people wanted more or something different but what we ended up getting was fine and it was the MCU track record that helped me believe things would be okay.

If Wonder Womanis good (and I hope it is), I'll start to trust them more.

DVD Josh

I think DC should just give up on making superhero movies.

Mike86

Marvel has had known issues with one film to date which is Ant-Man. I'm sure if they had other major production issues we'd hear about them too. It's not just everyone is against DC and bad news gets reported about them. They've clearly got a lot of problems and there's no track record to back then up that says differently. Plus let's not forget this issue along with the issues The Flash film is having have been publicized by legitimate sources, not just some Joe Blow anti DC clickbait articles.

majorjoe23

I wouldn't say Ant-Man is the one film they've had issues with.

They took away creative control from Ed Norton on Incredible Hulk
Joss Whedon seemed to have issues making Avengers 2, saying "It broke me"
Marvel fired Patty Jenkins from Thor 2
Recasting James Rhodes between Iron Man 1 and 2 (which I was fine with) due to lowballing Terrence Howard.

fumanstan

I might be misremembering or listening to my own bias, but I thought Ant-Man got just as much shit as any of the DC movies during pre-production for the Edgar Wright thing.

As for this, I think Affleck stepping down is a pretty big deal. Much bigger then some of the other writer/director changes because of how high of a regard I hold Affleck as a director and that there's been a lot of talk about his involvement in the DC movies creatively.

Mike86

Yeah I thought of other issues they had after posting. I think Edgar Wright dropping out of Ant-Man is really the biggest issue they've had to date as it seemed at the time like it could have major impact on the film. Fortunately it came out fine anyways.