Former elite soldiers go on an Expendables-like heist thriller in J.C. Chandor’s (“All Is Lost,” “A Most Violent Year”) indelibly exciting and pulse-pounding “Triple Frontier.”
Read moreBen Affleck Confirms He's Retiring Batman: “I tried to direct a version of it, but couldn’t crack it"
Director Matt Reeves is putting finishing touches on his ‘Batman’ film, finalizing pre-production before shooting begins later this month. Titled, “The Batman,” or at least for now as Reeves said earlier last week, the DC Film is set to be released on June 25th, 2021 release. We also know that Ben Affleck will not be back to play the caped crusader, tweeting back on January 30th, “ Excited for #TheBatman in Summer 2021 and to see @MattReevesLA vision come to life.”
Read moreREPORT: Matt Reeves Doesn't Want Ben Affleck for his Upcoming ‘The Batman’
Another day, another “Batman” rumor which always seems to contradict the last report. And it’s the same kind of back and forth pendulum-swinging story. Gossip and hearsay have swirled for months on whether or not Ben Affleck will be staying on as Batman in the DCEU.
Read more"Justice League" Box-Office: What happened?! How DC and the WB messed up the DCEU.
Ok, so you're probably wondering how did things become so bad for the WB and the DCEU? In a nutshell, it's more complicated than the following 400 words thesis.
The WB was desperately in need of a franchise, The Dark Knight trilogy was done ditto Harry Potter and the Hobbit. "Man of Steel" was made with the intent to be followed by a sequel, however, the WB decided to turn that sequel into the misbegotten "Batman vs Superman" and had that film launch their unprepared cinematic universe. That same year, the WB interfered a lot with David Ayer's "Suicide Squad," production rumors were swirling all around and, as you know, the film is now the stuff of cinematic infamy.
We all thought they had set-up a concrete cinematic universe by that point. Ten movies were announced, to be released from 2016 to 2020. Not even halfway through that slate of films, and banking on Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman" having surprise success at the Box-Office, the WB decided to have "Wonder Woman 2" released before "Flash" and "The Green Lantern." Not just that, they also decided to add in a slew of new projects in the span of 6 months: "Suicide Squad 2," "Justice League Dark," "The Batman," "Batgirl," "Gotham City Sirens," "Nightwing," "Man of Steel 2," "Black Adam," "Deadshot," "Lobo" "Deathstroke" and the untitled Joker and Harley Quinn film, produced by Martin Scorsese. Phew, suffice to say, the plans of a DCEU are all but fucked. In fact, there never really was a plan, they were changing their plan every month. They haven't even announced if Ben Affleck will return as Batman. They were supposed to rebuild around Affleck and now he may be done, with Jake Gyllenhaal being sought for the caped crusader role. That much anticipated "Flash" movie? It's lost, multiple directors have quit or been fired.
Who is to blame for all this? The WB of course, they set their sights on Zack Snyder to herald the DCEU forward, that didn't work so well. They wanted Avengers-sized success but didn’t want to put the time, effort, thought and resources into building it up in a thoughtfully conceived manner. At this point, my advice to them would be to do what they did with "Wonder Woman" and actually hire competent directors that have talent and that can put their own signature to the films. You might as well get on the critics good side because, and I do say this with the utmost confidence, I do believe bad reviews have contributed to this debacle.