Ben Affleck’s Batman film loses a second director

War of the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves has reportedly left the project

Published: Saturday, 18 February 2017 at 6:03 pm

While toy-friendly adventure The Lego Batman movie is currently flying high with positive reviews and box office success, the upcoming live-action adaptation of the character seems to be hitting a few more Bat-roadblocks.

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First, Ben Affleck himself (who first played the cape crusader in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 and will return for Justice League this year) pulled out of directing The Batman, and now his replacement – Cloverfield director Matt Reeves – has reportedly turned down the project as well.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Reeves (who was only revealed to be joining the project last week) has left negotiations with studio bigwigs at Warner Bros, with a source claiming that “negotiations have broken down.”

While there is apparently still a chance that talks could resume “when heads cool”, the move is another massive blow for Warner Bros after the continuing struggle to get their superhero universe off the ground and amid rumours that Affleck (who wrote the script for The Batman with DC comics’ Geoff Johns) wishes to hang up his Batman costume for good.

Other films in the Warner Bros superhero stable have had similar trouble holding onto a director, with Ezra Miller’s The Flash already going through Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa, so expect everyone involved to be going through a very Dark Night of the soul right about now.

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The Batman will be released at a later date

Authors

Radio Times commissioning editor Huw Fullerton. He sits in front of a shelving unit, looking at the camera and smiling. He wears glasses and has a moustache

Huw FullertonCommissioning editor

Huw Fullerton is a commissioning editor for Radio Times magazine handling comedy, entertainment and specialist drama. In a previous regeneration, he covered all things sci-fi and fantasy for RadioTimes.com.

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