Ben Affleck will never direct DC movie after “monstrous” ‘Justice League’ experience
Ben Affleck has vowed to never direct a DC movie, following his “monstrous” experience while filming the original Justice League.
The former Batman actor says that he has no interest in working with James Gunn and the new iteration of DC Studios. Affleck went as far as to say he would “absolutely not” work with Gunn on anything DC related.
“I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC. Absolutely not,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job.”
Affleck added the creative slant that Gunn is bringing to DC does not gel with what he wanted to do going forward, adding: “I’m not interested in that.”
During the sitdown, the subject of Justice League came up, with Affleck remarking that the original 2017 film was “monstrous” to make. Choosing his words carefully in regard to Zack Snyder’s replacement on the film, Joss Whedon, the DOGMA actor simply said the director didn’t deliver on his promise to fix things.
“It broke my heart,” he said of the film, which ultimately bombed. “There was an idea of someone [Joss Whedon] coming in, like, “I’ll rescue you and we’ll do 60 days of shooting and I’ll write a whole thing around what you have. I’ve got the secret.” And it wasn’t the secret. That was hard.”
He continued: “Justice League … You could teach a seminar on all the reasons why this is how not to do it. Ranging from production to bad decisions to horrible personal tragedy, and just ending with the most monstrous taste in my mouth.”
Affleck added that it was around this time that he started drinking “too much”. However, the two-time Oscar winner said that there was a silver lining to his Justice League experience.
Talking about Zack Snyder’s much-acclaimed Justice League release in 2012, in which Snyder delivered his original vision for the film, Affleck said: “The genius, and the silver lining, is that Zack Snyder eventually went to AT&T and was like, ‘Look, I can get you four hours of content.’
“And it’s principally just all the slow motion that he shot in black-and-white. And one day of shooting with me and him. He was like, ‘Do you want to come shoot in my backyard?’ I was like, ‘I think there are unions, Zack. I think we have to make a deal.’ But I went and did it. And now [Zack Snyder’s Justice League] is my highest-rated movie on IMDb.”
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JJ Nattrass
NME
