It’s something that has been floating in the rumour mists for a while now, but it appears Warner Bros. and DC are ready to move ahead to the next stage. According to Deadline, Ben Affleck is co-writing a stand-alone Batman film with DC Comics’ chief creative officer Geoff Johns for the current Caped Crusader to direct.
Reportedly, Affleck and Johns – who has written some of the company’s fan favourite comic book series and works on the various TV incarnations of its characters – clicked in terms of creative outlook and have already started work on a script. The timing is necessary because Affleck is headed off to shoot his next directorial outing, the Dennis Lehane adaptation** Live By Night**, in November. He’ll then be back on superhero duty for the Justice League films before he gets to work on a movie that takes a look at how Batman has been affected by his interaction with the League’s members.
There was no mention of a solo Batman film on Warners’ big schedule announcement last October, but there's a likely slot in 2019. Assuming this all turns out to be accurate, we’d expect to hear something during Warner Bros.’ panel for Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice at Comic-Con this Saturday.