ben affleck

Ben Affleck is frustrated. And who could blame him? Anyone who dons Batman’s iconic cape and mask is immediately the center of superhero fans’ attention, both positive and negative. But Affleck doesn’t just want to live in a Batman bubble and only be asked about Batman. (Valid, but what did you expect dude?)

Ben Affleck will try to reactivate his Argo mojo with Live By Night, a new prestige-y gangster picture coming to theaters very late in December (and expanding wider in 2017). Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (who also wrote the source for Affleck’s first directorial effort, Gone Baby Gone), the film stars Affleck, who also directed and penned the screenplay, as the son of a Boston police captain who ventures into a life of crime. The cast also includes Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, and Sienna Miller. Here’s the official synopsis:

Hollywood is so obsessed with superheroes these days they made a superhero movie about an accountant. It’s called The Accountant, and it is indeed about a guy who prepares people’s taxes, looks for deductions, and monitors financial records for fraud. But in his off-hours, this guy is also a master martial artist and a sniper capable of hitting targets a mile away. He also has a secret identity and what amounts to a low-rent Batcave, an Airstream trailer full of weapons and cash, stashed in a storage unit. He’s played by former Daredevil and current Batman Ben Affleck. He doesn’t wear a cape, but he might as well.

To commemorate the last day of shooting in the U.K., Justice League director Zack Snyder tweeted this video, which shows a surprising amount of behind-the-scenes footage from the set. Get ready to see Ben Affleck flying around on wires! Get ready to see 4/6ths of the Justice League on an elevator! Get ready to see Jason Momoa not handle his trident properly! (And no, that’s not a sexual euphemism.) Ah, what a glorious time to be alive.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a tale of two heroes and a tale of two outcomes. The film made $873 million worldwide. But it was also a deeply polarizing film, satisfying many hardcore DC fans but putting off others with its dark tone and heroes that I would characterize as, how should I put this, kinda dumb. It will lead directly into the Wonder Woman and Justice League movies, along with an entire DC Extended Universe, but the film was so dark and dour, that it made a lot of viewers less excited than nervous about all the stuff to come.

It’s been a big year for Ben Affleck, who put on the black cape in both Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad this summer, but the later part of this year will see him sink his teeth into more understated, non-superhero roles. He’ll make math thrilling in The Accountant in October, and after that he’ll venture down into the gangster underworld of the 1920s in Live By Night, which is looking like an awards season contender now that its wide release date has been moved up to January 2018.

If you liked the scene in Batman v Superman where Bruce Wayne watched YouTube videos about the future members of the Justice League, you'll love Suicide Squad. Instead of just one scene of plot-stopping fan service, Suicide Squad delivers an entire first act of soul-deadening exposition. The movie spends nearly 30 story-free minutes with a Machiavellian bureaucrat while she sits in a restaurant discussing a top secret personnel file. Here is Deadshot, the world’s greatest assassin; this is Harley Quinn, the Joker’s psychotic girlfriend. Oh, and have you heard about Captain Boomerang? And on and on and on.

Matt Damon has done a lot of things: He’s played a super spy, a con-man, an informant, an astronaut, a genius, and all sorts of fun characters who could also be action figures. The one thing he hasn’t done yet is play a superhero, and according to the star of Jason Bourne, that’s something he’d be willing to do for the right director — like maybe his BFF Ben Affleck.

We know Ben Affleck has written the script for his solo Batman movie, but the question remains, what will it be about? Will we get a story of the Dark Knight true to the comics, or something entirely new? It now looks like we’ll get a mix of both.

Zack Snyder makes superhero movies, but his characters don’t act very heroic. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice features all the other trappings of the superhero genre: Capes, gadgets, outlandish muscles, punching stuff. But the two stars aren’t noble or chivalrous; they’re violent, aggressive, and angry — mostly at each other instead of the bad guys. In Snyder’s formulation, protecting the world from evil isn’t a gift or a calling; it’s a burden. And that feeling is reflected in the movie itself, a burdensome 150- minute slog about two men fighting over who is in the right when both are very clearly in the wrong.

When Warner Bros. announced their upcoming superhero schedule last year, one title notably missing was a solo Batman movie. Sure, Batman was going to be a big part of both Batman vs. Superman and the two Justice League movies, but would Batfleck be getting his own trilogy, a la The Dark Knight? It turns out, yes, yes he will. Latino Review is reporting that Ben Affleck will both star in and direct the spinoff, titled The Batman, which is set for November 2018.

It's true, Matt Damon has confirmed that he will be working another a new Bourne film in the coming year and it is set to be released in 2016.