I have the feeling that 24 hours ago Warner Bros. was pretty excited about their casting announcement that Ben Affleck would star opposite Henry Cavill as Batman for Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel 2 film.
Warners apparently forgot that the internet is a mass bully pulpit of bile and venom and immediately went nuts, taking to social media and even initiating a petition to the studio in a futile attempt to break the newly signed contract because of a thousand signatures.
For some reason the reaction to Affleck’s casting seemed to erase the last ten plus years of his career, assuming they cast Kevin Smith’s friend who played Daredevil rather than the accomplished Academy Award winning director and ignoring his performances in such films as The Company Men, Hollywoodland, Smokin’ Aces, Extract and The Town.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Affleck’s strength is behind the camera. His on-screen work is good, peppered with some great performances. Behind the camera, he’s three for three with Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo. Name another contemporary filmmaker who’s batting a thousand and I promise you won’t need a second set of hands to count them on.
Warner Bros. wants to be in business with smart and talented people. Affleck has directed his last few movies with the studio and has been rumored to be involved with several other big films (including Justice League). But it’s my guess Affleck won’t helm that one. I think we’d likely see Snyder again behind the camera before Affleck heads to Gotham to direct his Batman film. This could be produced after Man of Steel 2 and before or after Justice League. Warner Bros. certainly doesn’t just want Affleck in front of the camera.
A bigger concern is that I don’t have an awful lot of faith with writer David S Goyer and director Zack Snyder. If Man of Steel is an example of their collaboration, I get more and more uncomfortable with the uninspired and frankly, too dark future of the DC Universe.
When announced at San Diego Comic Con, actor Harry Lennix read a quote from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns which was being used to establish a tone for the sequel;
“I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in all your most private moments, I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.”
Which leads to the inevitable question of how the DC Universe is going to expand. My thinking is that they are trying to out Marvel Marvel, establishing companion television franchises to work side by side with the film tentpoles. For instance, in the climax of The Dark Knight Returns, we get an appearance by another DC character.
Hey, doesn’t The CW currently have a show with this character? Now I don’t think we’re going to get The Dark Knight Returns in this film, but rather an atypical superhero meeting which has them fighting against one another before squaring off against a mutual nemesis.
Now I’m not suggesting that Arrow‘s Stephen Amell would appear in Man of Steel 2, but why not? There are plans to spin The Flash off from Arrow this season. What if the primary tier characters appeared in movies, but the secondary tier appear on television. Do we need a Green Arrow movie or a Flash film? Frankly I don’t think we’re going to see other actors portraying these characters as long as the shows are on the air, so wouldn’t it be easier to bring them to a Justice League film?
Think about cross promotion. What’s a Henry Cavill cameo worth appearing on a season finale of Arrow telling Oliver Queen that the Justice League needs him?
It also gives a Justice League film the ability to avoid any backstories or origins of these characters. There’s a pretty good chance that if you see the movie and enjoy it and don’t watch the series, your next stop after the film would be to pick up the available seasons on DVD.
In the past several years we’ve seen DC Comics become DC Entertainment and the legacy of their publishing empire devolve into a warehouse of intellectual properties and have seen their competitor, Marvel, become a major Hollywood Player.
Man of Steel 2 arrives on July 17th. 2015 with plenty of people bitching about it for close to two years before seeing it.
But hey, what do I know? I like Ben Affleck.
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