Ben Affleck, Matt Damon’s best friend and star of Warner Bros’ upcoming Batman v Superman tentpole, had some kind words to say about WB CEO Kevin Tsujihara in a Variety cover story.
“I was really impressed by that and by the intelligence of his notes, and the fact that he cared. It was not like some guys, especially at that level, where it would be, ‘We need a franchise movie … we just need a movie with the names ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman’ on it and it doesn’t matter what it is. For him, that wasn’t it. He was willing to take longer to make the movie to get it right to make it a movie of higher quality.”
He went on to talk about the focus Warner Bros has put on Batman v Superman and to me it sounds like they’re just putting all their eggs in one basket. Why is everyone so desperate to copy The Avengers?
Affleck has moved two of his own projects – an adaptation of Live By Night and The Accountant – to make room in his schedule to shoot more Justice League movies. One being the aptly titled Justice League, and the other suspected to be The Batman.
“We are a very kind of instant gratification culture when it comes to analyzing the film business. And there is a lot of hyperbole involved. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of pressure on it. If it doesn’t do well, that will be extremely disappointing.”
Actually, I think if it doesn’t do well literally no one will be surprised. Man of Steel was lame, and every other DC movie has been a failure, with the exception of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, and Tim Burton’s Batman. But the Nolan trilogy JUST ENDED and we’re already being inundated by Marvel. You guys aren’t filling a need, here.
Affleck remains optimistic, I guess because that’s his job.
“You’ll see next year they are going to have a great year. They are now developing … probably the single greatest under-exploited IP asset in the entertainment business, the DC comic world. And now they have started to exploit that and you are going to see that blossom. And, when it does, it’s going to be massive.”
Don’t use words like exploit, dude! We are in an over-saturation period of superheroes! This is not supply and demand! Give us a break! Leave us alone!