You'll recall that Ben Affleck spent a few years trying to get a solo Batman movie off the ground, with Affleck in both the Caped Crusader's cowl and the director's chair. For one reason or another (or, perhaps, several reasons) that project never made it across the starting line, and now we're looking forward to a new Batman movie (and, in all likelihood, multiple Batman movies) from Matt Reeves, a guy we have nothing but complete faith in.
But what was Affleck's Batman gonna be about? According to cinematographer Robert Richardson (who would've lensed the project for Affleck, and who's recently been making the interview rounds in support of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), it sounds like Ben Affleck's Batman would've taken us inside Arkham Asylum, one of the most interesting locations (aesthetically and thematically!) in the DC universe.
Speaking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Richardson says:
“I wanted to shoot Batman with Ben [Affleck] cause that was the next film we had. There was a script, but not a loved script. There was a lot of work he was doing to it to change it. He was going into the more insanity aspects…
He was entering more into the Arkham, he’s going into where everyone was bad… That’s where we were going. I was very interested in that one.”
We are, once again, very excited to see what Matt Reeves (and newly-minted Batman Robert Pattinson) have in store for us in the next Batman solo movie, but man...we really would've enjoyed a Bat-movie set within Arkham. Hell, we'd be happy if they just turned Rocksteady's Arkham Asylum game into its own movie (I will also use this opportunity to again say that a Long Halloween adaptation would probably be aces).
What do y'all think? Would an Arkham-set Batman make you happy? What do you think Reeves will do with the character now that he's up to bat (I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm trying to remove it)? Weep for what might've been or shrug it off entirely in the comments below, and stay tuned for more on Matt Reeves' The Batman as further updates roll in.