Petitioners urge movie studio to drop Ben Affleck as Batman

There is a petition that is growing very fast in popularity with over 60,000 confirmed signatures that aims to put Ben Affleck on the chopping block for his role in the next Batman movie.

Here are some of the comments from people that have signed the petition.....

jamie austin AMELIA, OH 3 days ago ......I'm tired of people screwing with Batman. It's bad enough that we lost any possibility to experience Ledger's performance of the joker again. Now's not the time to soften Batman's image. The franchise needs stability and movies need to get back to cannon. Affleck just isn't the man for the job. Bale can bring it.

Larry Dent TACOMA, WA 3 days ago......
Ben Affleck will destroy the legacy of Batman. Please bring back Christian Bale.

John Sands EDMOND, OK 3 days ago .....
Batman is serious, tragic, dark and commanding. Even Superman does what Batman says. Ben Affleck absolutely cannot come across as believable in such a role. You will bring Batman to a terrible place requiring someone to come behind you and clean up your mess. I'm a diehard fan but will in no way pay to watch this film. Shame for letting us all down. You need Bale or some new actor that hasn't been over exposed. Ben Affleck is not believable in anything because of all the exposure he is more of a reality star now.

I agree with the petitioners on this one and I have signed the petition.

What say you ATSers do you think Mr Affleck will make a fine Batman? Or, do you agree with us and believe that he is most assuredly NOT the man to fill the shoes of the great Batman legacy?

Here is a link to the story.

[link to petition removed]

-Alien

Ben Affleck has to be one of the worst actors of all time. I could care less if anyone played batman. Anyone but him because I find him to be terrible.

Yeah but Affleck was the bomb in phantoms bro lol

Recasting Batman for a joint Batman-Superman movie is like Recasting Iron man for the Avengers movie.

reply to post by theconspirator


but the Bale batman movies where meant to be a stand alone trilogy, for instance we could see the joker again as the Bale batmans never happened in the superman/batman movie world

ok people... its not like it takes a GREAT actor to play a masked super hero...

You guys talk about it as if someone like de niro is EXTREMELY NEEDED to play this role... no... ben affleck will do just fine. Besides I was getting kind of fed up with this throat cancer batman anyway...

reply to post by anonymous1legion


Why would you want to watch a movie that already came out a couple years ago. Batman has many more enemies to make as the bad guy. They set up a great actor to become robin(Joseph Gordon-Levitt). And with superman in the mix, there is not a lack of ideas.

reply to post by theconspirator


im not saying i want to watch a movie that came out years ago im saying the Bale Batman franchise is totally seperate to the batman/superman franchise that is why they didnt recast iron man... because it was meant to be part of the avengers franchise the Bale Batmans are not part of the Justice League franchise

reply to post by theconspirator


There have been rumors about that.

www.ign.com...

One thing that makes my skin crawl is Jon Hamm's name being thrown around for Shellhead.

RDJ is the perfect Tony Stark, hands down

reply to post by anonymous1legion


Yeah but if the 2 franchises could combine, that would be an epic movie.

reply to post by TheToastmanCometh


Yeah i saw that. That would be a huge mistake.

reply to post by theconspirator


very true..... Avengers vs The Justice League even sounds cool

reply to post by anonymous1legion


I ment the Bale Batman franchise and the new superman/batman franchise.

reply to post by theconspirator


OH lol i see, yeah i suppose they could make it work, personally though i thought Bale made the batman a bit of a joke with his gruff voice, i mean why did he do it like that, the villains in the trilogy out perfomed Bale in every way

Okay, WTH?? I don't much care who plays Batman as anyone can seem to make it work after the job Val Kilmer did with it. He's the last I ever thought would make it work well and it did. Quite well, in fact. However, I haven't seen much for previews or stories here, nor have many mentioned it....

What are they thinking to have Batman VS. Superman? I've about had it with their redfining and screwing with brands most of us grew up with and liked just fine with some modernizing perhaps, but not a re-writing as if the past never happened for lore and background. Now we'll have to choose?? (and in any legend-realistic telling, short of a Kryptonite gun, the Bat is in for a wing clipping anyway. It's just not a workable match-up.)

Peter Sciretta, editor-in-chief of the movie site slashfilm.com, thinks it's telling that Snyder chose a 41-year-old for his Batman. Chances are the character will be much different from the one in the Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton movies, Sciretta says, and Affleck could thrive in the role of an older, more conflicted vigilante millionaire.

"In Man of Steel, Superman was so careless in that final battle, letting much of Metropolis end in ruin, allowing so many civilian casualties," Sciretta says. "The fate of Metropolis was a big problem a lot of fans had with the film, and I expect that that destruction will be a huge part of why Batman will be hunting down Superman in this next film."

Source: USA Today (Emphasis Added)

It's said with such an off handed casual nature for that plot aspect, either I'm the last to know it's facing them off against each other.....or someone let something slip, he was used to knowing but didn't apparently consider no one else was?

Colourful (extreme use of really foul language) words used by Francis in a comedic context about how annoyed he is about this travesty!


Actually, I don't care... Batman was always best on a Saturday afternoon wearing blue tights with Robin in toe. Old school Biff Bam Sock Pow style!

reply to post by wrabbit2000


I do hope it isnt batman vs superman
id rather see another......

I'm not a Batman fan or a Spider-Man, Hulk or Ironman fan, so as an outsider viewing this dilemma I can understand the directors choice to go with Affleck on this.

I once heard that Michael Keaton was chosen for the original Batman role because he was a comedian, and comedians tend to have a dynamic alter ego, meaning they have an intensely darker side to their personality that the public never sees.

While Affleck is not a comedian, he is however the guy that every woman wants to take home to mum, and every guy wants to be, especially when he plays opposite bombshells like Jennifer Anniston giving a convincing performance that he and Anniston are meant to be.

On the surface Ben Affleck is Bruce Wayne. A womanising charmer, who can shake hands with power brokers and laugh in their faces while walking out the door with two women in tow. Bruce Wayne the playboy, is the true mask of Batman, not vice-versa.

I can guarantee all of you that there is a side to Affleck that is screaming for a serial killer role, and he will bring that to the fore in his role in Batman.

Mel Gibson, Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray, Charlie Sheen and Pierce Brosnan were all rumoured to be on Warner Bros’ shortlist for the title role, although Jack Nicholson’s casting as The Joker meant that the studio could afford to go with an unknown — after all, it had worked with Christopher Reeve for Superman. Burton had his doubts. “In my mind I kept reading reviews that said, ‘Jack’s terrific, but the unknown as Batman is nothing special,’” he told Mark Salisbury. Neither did he want to cast an obvious action hero — “Why would this big, macho, Arnold Schwarzenegger-type person dress up as a bat for God’s sake?” Finally, it came down to only one choice: Michael Keaton, whom he had just directed in Beetlejuice. “That guy you could see putting on a bat-suit; he does it because he needs to, because he’s not this gigantic, strapping macho man. It’s all about transformation…” observed Burton. “Taking Michael and making him Batman just underscored the whole split personality thing which is really what I think the movie’s all about.”

Tales from Development Hell

As you can see from the clipping that even Bill Murray was once a candidate to play batman, but if you want to be true to the original comic script then you must understand that Batman is 2 different people, otherwise how else could he have protected his identity for so long.

This whole split personality / double life existence is what gives Superheroes their appeal.

School geek by day, Spider-Man at night.
School geek by day, Kick-Ass at night.
Mild mannered reporter aka Superman.
Bruce Banner physicist aka Incredible Hulk.
Drunk alcoholic during the day, and Hancock, still drunk at night...bad example.. Maybe Sheen should have played that role.

But you get my drift right ?

reply to post by Alien Abduct


Affleck as Daredevil. Acting is bad. Voice is too light. Still has a babyface.

I almost cried yesterday when I saw this on ign. If they drop Affleck then that would be what another year delay??

If they decide to go with him, I'm afraid the movie wouldn't sell as good in the previous Batman movies.