Warner Bros. picked Matt Reeves to direct The Batman.
Also, apparently the script is actually done and both Affleck and the President of Warner Bros. are happy with it.
Good news all around.
Warner Bros. picked Matt Reeves to direct The Batman.
Also, apparently the script is actually done and both Affleck and the President of Warner Bros. are happy with it.
Good news all around.
Reeves seems like a good choice. Plenty of experience making movies on a big scale.
Lego Batman was pretty great. It was my kid's first film in a theater and she enjoyed it.
I'm actually taking my oldest daughter to see it tomorrow. I wish our tastes(yours and mine) were more in line but I have high hopes anyway.
I don't know why people have such faith in Ben Affleck being the lynchpin of this franchise. He's a sometimes good director (not always) and a sometimes good scriptwriter (not always) and he's a shit actor (almost always), he isn't a guaranteed stamp of quality and he's been heavily involved in the two underwhelming DC movies so far.
I didn't think Affleck's performance was anything special. But they've also boxed themselves into a corner with this adaptation of Batman. They've aged him, they've removed any ambiguity about how far he's willing to go by making him a killer, they've shown him in conflict with Alfred and in turmoil about his place in the world and they've done the battle with Superman that could have taken place in a similar manner as Civil War - after several movies depicting their philosophies and the natural tension in their relationship. After covering all of that interesting ground in one film, they run the risk of trying to simply write around a Batman vs Villain plot. And writing is not the DCEU's strong suit.
Aye. No subtlety. No slow build with DC. Gives the impression that they are all in for the quick buck.
The Riddler.
Bingo.
Innit
I saw Lego Batman last night. My daughter loved it. It was relatively entertaining but not close to the brilliance of The Lego Movie.
The DCEU is flirting with being disastrously bad. Imagine if Wonder Woman is crappy or flops. It's too late to cancel JLA so they would have to move forward with a giant movie that was set up by 3 really crappy movies that most people dislike. The rest of 2017 should be very interesting in regard to how these two movies do. I kind of want them to be awful and blow up in their face just to prove that making shitty movies doesn't pay off based on name value alone. If that happens, I wonder if The Batman with Affleck even happens or if it gets cancelled.
The buzz is that Wonder Woman is good but Justice League sucks. My feeling is that if Justice League doesn't deliver (under a billion at the box office, bad reviews) then we're looking at major retooling of the universe. The Aquaman movie is happening no matter what, but I think the other projects get shelved. They'll want to get the Batman movie made no matter what, so even if Affleck walks they'll just find a new Batman.
I like Affleck as Batman and I was a big proponent of him directing. To me, that was more the draw than him playing the role (though he's fine in it). I think he's an excellent director and a huge fan of the character, so he'd be the type of guy who could deliver a great movie.
There's a big rumor going around that Affleck wants out of Batman completely. I don't know what Warner Bros. does if he manages to get out of playing the character. That's assuming there's any truth to the rumor, of course.
I'd go with Michael Fassbender if they have to recast.
I can't imagine that they don't have him tied to a substantial contract that he will find very difficult to get out of.
Yeah, I think he's contracted until at least Justice League 2 and maybe the solo Batman movie.
I believe it. DCEU is a mess. Wouldn't be surprised if there's some truth. I'd assume WB has him locked in his contract for a while. Do you really want to force an actor who gives no fucks to show up? I mean, Marvel had the same situation with Hugo Weaving. He decided he was done with that kind of stuff which basically killed Red Skull from the universe unless they decide to recast. He's got a lot going on right now. Probably wants to focus his time somewhere else. If he can weather whatever penalties would come from it then I'm sure he can bail.
Last edited by Venom_Axe; February 14th, 2017 at 12:47 PM.
I'm not so sure, he has probably taken a many multi-million dollar contract and actors don't tend to be the smartest investors, he's probably blown it all on a new home or something.
I'm not naming names as I don't know for sure around here but it's funny how negative so many people were about Affleck playing Batman....Now I am finding an extreme amount of people wanting him to stay lol.
I can't really speak on the DCEU. There's not much to go off of. I thought Man of Steel was great. I really enjoyed Superman v. Batman. Suicide Squad was the fucking shit, really fun movie with quite a few characters that have loads of potential down the road. Outside of those movies I'm not sure what everyone is up in arms about. Most of the movies you guys are talking about to my knowledge aren't even in theaters yet so how about we take a step back and WAIT.........Maybe I'm just a mark for comic book inspired movies.
Yeah Hugo, if I remember, said he hated the process of turning into Red Skull. I mean, I'm not really missing him. Winter Solider and going against the government the last couple movies made up for it. But I get it. Skull is a major Cap villain but Cap has a laundry list of key villains that make for very good movies.Originally Posted by Venom_Axe
Speaking of Red Skull....Part of me somewhat wishes "Logan" was ripped straight from "Old Man Logan" because of Red Skull's involvement in that storyline and how fucking disturbing it would be
"Old Man Logan" book spoiler:
I think if Affleck really wants him out they'll let him out of his contract. They're not going to force him to make movies. Think about it from the studio's perspective: the story would be that Affleck hates these movies but is making them because he's forced to by his contract. Every single time he does press he'll get asked about whether or not he actually wanted to make the movie. Promotional disaster.
I think they'll try to keep a lid on him leaving until after Justice League comes out for the sake of that movie.
I disagree, they have literally billions of dollars resting on him now. They won't let him walk.
Apparently talks between Matt Reeves and Warner Bros. have broken down and Reeves is no longer directing The Batman. Yikes.
Reeves is deep in to finishing off the latest planet of the apes film. I imagine it's probably a timing conflict as DC is probably ready to start flinging shit to the wall to see what sticks.
It could be any number of things, but I find it hard to be optimistic about the DC movies at this point.
Batman of all things ending up in development hell has to be the worst possible indictment of how that studio is run.
Warner Bros. woes are a relatively recent thing.
You say that, but keep in mind we already had a wilderness period for Batman movies between 1997 and 2005.
I wonder what's going on in WB right now. We have directors exiting projects for unknown reasons. If whatever they do up there continues to drive people away from taking part in the movies the DCEU's future looks grim. Only reason I can think of is WB being morons and trying to exert control over the directors and people telling them to shove it. But Affleck is supposed to be WB's darling, and they even gave him Live By Night so what more does he want? Affleck has a lot riding on this true, but having him walk away would be just absurd. I'm really hoping Justice League does well enough, because Affleck's Batman seems to be prominent in that movie, to help things settle down. At this point, I don't even want a Batman movie. I'd be fine with having him show up in other characters' movies and the Justice League sequels.
WB has survived on Harry Potter and the Matrix money for almost two decades. Even in the 90s WB TV was notorious for cutting the knees out of programs that were sucessful like Buffy, Angel and Babylon 5 to name a few. It seems the same with the DCU movies.
Just a disastrous couple weeks for this project. We've gone from Affleck directing a movie shooting this spring to the movie being indefinitely delayed, the script being re-written, Affleck dropping out as director, and now Miller walking. I'm really skeptical of the reports that they have a script ready to go, that sounds like studio spin to me. And regardless, any director worth his salt is going to want to re-work the script, even if it's good. So at this point this project is nowhere.
I wonder how many figures it would take for Nolan to consult.
Him 'consulting' would literally mean him getting paid so that they can put his name as 'consultant' on the project.
He's been a producer on the Superman films so far but Mik's right, Warner Bros are probably just paying him so they can attach his names to the films.
Yeah, his involvement in "Man of Steel" didn't make that project a success. He was the one who picked Snyder as director.
Did he fuck.
Matt Reeves is officially the director of The Batman. So we can rewind to a week or two ago when we first reacted to this news.
Glad to see this. Big win for Bat fans.
But is Affleck staying?
I don't think we'll know that for awhile. Even if he's planning on leaving it's in everyone's interest to keep it quiet until after Justice League comes out.
Warner Bros. is saying that Affleck is still playing Batman in this movie.
Interesting that Affleck wasn't mentioned in the press release at all. Especially at a time when things are at critical mass and WB knows they need to ease people's fears.
Yo Beer-Belly. The Dark Knight Trilogy still sucks.
Yeah, if I were the studio I would have wanted a quote from Affleck in there talking about how excited he was to work with Reeves.
Better than Star Wars, homie.
I fucking love the Nolan movies. I have some nitpicks with The Dark Knight Rises, but for the weakest of the trilogy it's still a pretty damn good movie. The Dark Knight is one of the best action movies of all-time and deserved a nomination for Best Picture. Batman Begins is super underrated only because it's overshadowed The Dark Knight. I think it's the best interpretation of pretty much every Batman character in the movies. The cast was amazing, Nolan had a strong vision for the movies and brought it to life. They set a standard for superhero movies that hasn't been surpassed.
Nolan's Batman series is The Godfather series of Superhero films, the first is incredible, many people think that the second is better (I disagree on this point with Batman, but agree with Godfather II), the third one gets a bad rap, but is actually a lot better than people thought it was.
Also, Ben Affleck is coming back to continue doing Batman, trust me on this.
I don't think Nolan gave a shit about who directed Man of Steel. He made some cash off of it, though.
I actually like Man of Steel. Shame the follow up was so bad.
I love Star Wars, BTTF, LOTR, etc. I still say the Nolan Batman trilogy is the best trilogy to me. Begins was a great introduction, TDK escalates the violence and the turmoil in both Batman and Bruce's lives, and TDKR finishes the story by taking it back to the league of shadows and Bruce's pst haunting him. It's one of the few trilogies that I can watch in one sitting.
I'd be comatose. At least Star Wars and LOTR build to something. The Nolan films are one and a half good films about a man who dresses up like a Bat.
Lord of the rings is just 3 movie of people walking to a fucking volcano. Even the fucking trees walked in those movies!
I will say Star Wars is better, but not LOTR. Return of the King has to be one the worst films to win best picture. Shitty CGI, zero resolution with Samurran/Wormtongue and an ending that will never die. The Batman trilogy is great and I would watch DKR over King any day of the week.
Batman Begins was phenomenal. TDK is one of the most overrated films of all time but it's ok. TDKR was terrible.
How would you personally rate TDK?
I thought I was very alone in rating Batman Begins as far and away the best of the trilogy. Dark Knight was brilliant fun and then towards the end became disappointingly contrived. Third film was just an huge departure from the realism they'd tried to establish previously. Standalone it was still a fine watch with great performances, but it didn't feel like part of the same series of movies to me at all.
I don't know how anyone can say TDKR is terrible.
it's not, but it's often a mess and a real departure from the previously established world.
The Dark Knight Trilogy builds to Batman being a symbol that's more than just one man. A trilogy doesn't necessarily need to build to anything anyway.
Batman is an outlandish concept. Yeah, no shit. Just because a story or character is unrealistic doesn't invalidate it. There are plenty of engaging stories that can be told about "a man who dresses up like a Bat."
Don't pay attention to rogerer he more or less complains about everything.
The movie probably does attempt to juggle too many balls at once, so to speak. I didn't feel like it deviated from the previously established world to the degree that you're claiming, though. What about it was so jarring for you?
The script for The Batman is being completely rewritten. Sounds like we won't see that movie until 2019 at the least.
I thought it was crazy that they didn't tie the Nolan trilogy into the DCEU. It would've been the perfect point and left little need for another Batman film till they brought the rest of the JL to the big screen. DC probably could've thrown money at Bale to stay on.
Nolans trilogy wouldn't have fit in, unless all the Justice League business somehow got shoehorned in the timeframe between Begins and DK. At the end of the trilogy you have Bruce Wayne and Batman "dead" to the world, which would require too much needless exposition to bring back.
You could have had JGL be Batman or have him die or beaten while fighting a threat only the JLA can defeat with Bale returning as Batman. There was easy ways to get Bale back into this thing. I would have loved to seen Bane or Selina back in Suicide Squad. Actually change Suicide Squad from Harley/Joker to Selina/Batman.
If the last Nolan movie hadn't made Batman a pussy in hiding that retired for 7 years and blew up everything Wayne had in terms of his ID and legacy, I could see it. Instead of keeping it open-ended, Nolan set it up as a closed trilogy: beginning, middle, end. Going further with Bale/Batmanwould have unnecessarily ruined Nolan's 'ending'.
And having someone other than Bruce as Batman? Might work for short stretches in serial fiction, but for a movie? Where's the audience 'buy-in' on that, when everyone and their mother expects Batman to be Bruce Wayne?
Why is anyone assuming Bale wanted to reprise the role?
Who assumed? Maybe he would have if enough money was thrown at him.
That's an assumption.
Like the assumptions in a couple of the last few posts.
How did that make him a pussy? Batman wasn't needed and Bruce Wayne's body was beat to fuck. The Dent Act essentially wiped out most of the corruption, so the cops and elected officials could problems on their own.
Bale has stated he was never asked to return. He seem to hint if the script was right, he would do it. Beer-Belly is right. If the cops are not corrupt assholes, there is no need for a Batman. He was also enemy number one. The longer he stated out in the streets, the more likely he would be caught.
Care to quote that? Everything I've read he seemed pretty content to move on.
Hence the pledge he made to his parents coming true. Who would've thunk...The whole Batman arc in 3 movies.
I can't find the quote, but I do think Bale seemed to indicate that he would return if Christopher Nolan also returned to direct. Don't quote on me that, though.
So he'd return if something that was never in the cards were to happen? Ok. I meant in any actual consideration.
And I'm not even saying that it'd have been completely out of the realm of possibility for him to have returned, just that people are ho-humming the assumption that duh he just should have been put in the new films. As though it were a clerical error.
They definitely should've built the DCEU from Nolan's Batman.
Nah, I love The Dark Knight Trilogy to death, but I think most people want to see a more comic book based Batman at this point. Nolan's Batman doesn't mesh well with characters like Clayface.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/moviepi...ts/2459705/amp
dont think he ever really had any intention of reprising the role but definitely felt territorial about it. i also think if nolan said he wanted to make a fourth film, bale would be all for it. after affleck was cast, he'd said that WB never asked him about returning and never offered him $50 million to do so, and would follow that up saying his batman wouldnt work outside of the nolan series.
I think it would've been fine what they did with Batman in BvS doesn't really require much characterization anyway heck you could've slotted Keaton's Batman in there, and it wouldn't have changed anything.
Bane: "Victory has defeated you"
Basically, Batman had won and wasn't needed anymore...
At least until Bane showed up...
But ultimately Batman came back and beat Bane by punching him in his metal face tubes several times.
Batman had to comr back, because the cops were no real match for Bane.
How I've described it is that TDKR felt like the fourth film. Like there should have been something between TDK and it, but that couldn't happen with Heath gone.
could go in the comic book film thread as well, but teasers for justice league are going up. batman, aquaman and flash so far, assuming cyborg and wonder woman will follow soon, and the new trailer will release on saturday.
the use of the white stripes song as the stinger still throws me off. that first teaser that came out last year i figured was just a placeholder use, something unofficial, so surprised to still be hearing it.
Last edited by Morrison; March 24th, 2017 at 2:38 AM.
Batman Returns came out 25 years ago today. That movie is endlessly rewatchable. I still remember being scared shitless when Penguin took a bite out of that dude's nose.
What would your top 5 Batman movies look like? I'll omit animated movies there's too many.
Mine would be:
Batman
Batman Returns
The Dark Knight
Batman (the 1960's movie)
Batman Forever.
Probably get a little heat not including the other 2 Nolan films but including Forever but I fucking loved it. I loved the casting from top to bottom.
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
Batman '89
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman V Superman
pretty sure i will be the only one with BVS on their list. so much of the batman stuff in that movie hit with me. i actually enjoy batman and robin a lot as a big budget version of the 60's series. forever is alright. returns i think might have been the first film i ever saw in a movie theater, so it holds a special place in my heart but it just doesn't rank as high for me. probably above the schumacher films but that's about it. dark knight is my favorite movie of all time, with batman begins just being an insanely wonderful film all around. i had a period of time where i was indifferent to batman '89, just after TDK came out, but watched it again in the last year or two and fell back in love. jack's joker is great, i don't see any reason to ever harp on about 'it's just nicholson being nicholson.' rises is very much the number three film of the nolan triolgy, but has a handful of my favorite scenes from the entire run, namely the underground fight between bane and batman, which is one of my favorite fight scenes of all time.
I honestly can't rank them. I think The Dark Knight would be number one.
Maybe I'd go...
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
Batman '89
Batman Returns
The Dark Knight Rises.
Batman '89 and Batman Returns are basically interchangeable, though.
Bat signal lights up LA to say goodbye, old chum to Adam West
Thursday, the city of LA lit up in tribute to West, who passed away at age 88 on June 10. The iconic bat signal was splayed across the LA City Hall tower at 9 p.m. PT.
Special guests turned out to remember the actor best known for his role as the Caped Crusader, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck, as well as the '60s Batman series Robin, Burt Ward, and Catwoman, Lee Meriweather.
This is exactly my feeling on TDKR. I got chills when Bruce made the jump. I don't think I've had an emotion like that about a superhero or action hero since. Then you have Bane's introduction as his men capture the plane, Batman's comeback and escape from the cops, the haunting beatdown in the sewers, Bane spelling out his plan to a crippled Bruce in the pit, etc.
The film is less grounded than its predecessors, it packs in so much that the running time is a little bloated, it had a tough act to follow after Ledger and I still get annoyed that they cut away from that epic moment in the finale where Batman and Bane start fighting after finding each other in the crowd. But a lot of my problems with the film have subsided with time and I think it closes the arc of Bruce Wayne in a wonderful way.
I might be in the minority but I find Batman Begins to be a tad boring in comparison to the other 2 Nolan movies.
BvS was awesome, but I don't consider it a Batman movie the same way I don't consider Avengers a Capt America movie. Still a fun movie. TDKR...IMO, after reading Knightfall Vol. 1, I would have preferred a better story for Bane. The movie twisted that storyline to make it about the girl which pretty much killed the movie for me. I didn't mind she turned heel so to speak, but making Bane into basically what he was in Batman and Robin as Poison Ivy's muscle just took away from how great Bane could have been.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a remake of the comic book storyline from Knightfall where Bane basically breaks out all the villains who in Arkham and what follows. Seriously, those of you who haven't, check out Knightfall Vol. 1 and tell me you wouldn't love that version of Bane v. Batman compared to what we got instead. TDKR had the same vibe as Spider Man 3 with Venom or BvS with Doomsday. You have these iconic villains just rushed and it took away from how great they really were.
eh, batman/bruce wayne is such a driving force behind everything in BVS that i find it hard to consider it anything but a batman movie with some superman cameos.
Isn't Knightfall actually pretty weak? I get the impression that TDKR used the best aspect(s) from that arc.
I can get down with that. But then would you consider Capt America Civil War more of an Iron Man movie since Tony has such a huge role in it, probably has more camera time as well.
God no, it's awesome. Probably one of my favorites that I've read, but I haven't read the others just Vol. 1 so anything after Vol. 1 I can't speak on. The way they introduced Bane was better than the movie's take on it. Instead of random vanilla criminals breaking out of a prison you had the best of the best and then some in terms of villains. Joker, Scarecrow, Riddler, the list goes on. The lead up to Bane v. Batman is better in the comic than the movie especially the fight scene. There's also no Robin in these movies, there's no Knightwing, Robin is great in Knightfall vol. 1, much better than whatever they were trying with Joseph Gordon-Levitt which is a nothing character in retrospect.
I'm not shitting on TDKR I'm just saying in comparison, it isn't even close. Just like when you compare the fight scene between Batman and Superman in BvS in comparison to the fight they had in the books where Batman has a kryptonite ring that Superman gave him in case something bad happened with him i.e. in the book he gets "possessed" by Poison Ivy and the fight they have is the shit. This happens though, the re-telling sometimes isn't even close but it's still good. TDKR, BvS, they were good for what they were but had they been able to do more like the comic, for sure it'd be way better. They took the best parts of the arc, but they made it their own thing which bastardized the original concept because in comparison the movie looks bland.
I think Nicholson was an awesome Joker. Burton was going more for a comic feel, and Nicholson perfectly fit in with his portrayal as Joker. He brings the comical side to the forefront. You actually think of Joker as a nutjob more than anything else. And the clothes were awesome that he wore. Ledger wasn't spontaneous like the true Joker was...all he wanted to do was blow up things and have people killed. I also didn't like his make up, and when he talked, it was like he has mush in his mouth. Heck that Prince song that used Joker quotes was a big hit, because that Joker was everything people imagined Joker to be. I feel like over time, people kind of forgot how great he was, and when Ledger put a new spin on it the hype really built up. I feel that both actors nailed the part of Joker in each of their films. The Heath Joker never would've worked in the Burton film, and Jack's Joker wouldn't have worked for Nolan. The Dark Knight was a crime oriented portrayal of Batman. So that anarchic nihilism of Heath's Joker worked well with the film. He's a faceless sociopath behind the paint.
Michael Keaton was on Jimmy Kimmel recently and made it clear that he loved playing Batman. I'd really like to see one more Burton/Keaton Batman film.
Hear hear I think there's room for that. Don't know if there's a market. But a Batman sequel to Batman Returns where Bruce is older and Selina Kyle comes back into his life would be great to tie up a Burton/Keaton trilogy! No matter what age Keaton is, I'll always want to see him in the Batsuit again. The results could be amazing... and they could also be disappointing. The possibilities are endless if something like that was realized. Whether Burton would want to do it is another thing.
Batman Returns is atrociously awful...
The script for that movie is garbage...
If that movie was released today?
It would get eaten alive...
Last edited by Bill Casey; June 16th, 2017 at 8:07 PM.
Not counting animated movies:
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman: The Movie
Batman Returns
Begins and TDK are so close that they could easily swap and are two of my favorite films. The 60s Batman movie is so much fun to watch. Wonderful camp. Returns is pure Burton, but it works a bit better than the 89 film for me. It's total chaos and I like that.
When everyone was losing their minds about Affleck getting cast and Snyder said something about an older Batman, I got this silly idea in my head that they should have just cast Keaton and never addressed the continuity. Just, he's old TDKR Batman and everyone's happy.
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