Warner Brothers’ next Batman flick has landed a new director.
According to Variety’s Justin Kroll, Matt Reeves, director of Cloverfield, Let Me In and most recently, the excellent Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, will sign on to helm The Batman. Kroll reports that Reeves has agreed to direct the film, but an official deal hasn’t yet been inked.
Ben Affleck will reprise his role as Batman and was initially set to direct the project, but dropped out of the dual-role to focus on playing the character. Affleck also co-wrote the script with DC Films president Geoff Johns, but Chris Terrio — who wrote Affleck’s film Argo and co-wrote Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice — recently did some rewrite work on the screenplay, which was reportedly holding up production.
Reeves is the best-case-scenario to replace Affleck if he wasn’t going to direct the project. His films have been stellar, with his most recent work on the Planet of the Apes films showing he can handle franchise blockbusters. Reeves is great at directing dramatic action films with elements of horror, and has shown the knack for being able to pull off distinctive films in already well-established series. His War for the Planet of the Apes is coming out later this summer.
Many fans and critics were hoping to see Affleck’s take on the Caped Crusader, but if it’s not him, Reeves is one hell of a fallback option. He was clearly Warner Brothers’ first choice to take over the standalone Batman film, as his name was quickly mentioned as a potential replacement. Hopefully, the studio learned from the mistakes of Suicide Squad and interference on the David Ayer project, and allow Reeves to craft his own visual style for the film.
The announcement is exciting. For those fearing the next Batman would be more Joel Schumacher than Christopher Nolan, Reeves signing onto the project should ease your nerves.
