The Dark Knight is coming back.
After Ben Affleck was announced as the director of the new standalone Batman film, we were absolute chuffed because the Oscar-winner was coming off the triple-whammy of making Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo.
Since then, his next directorial feature, Live by Night, was a disappointment and his films as Batman have been really disappointing. This being said, there's very little that Affleck could have done to save Zack Snyder's take on The Dark Knight in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League.
Truth be told, we still have hope that Affleck will feature in at least one great Batman film and with Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, War for the Planet of the Apes, Let Me In) in the director's chair, we've got high hopes for The Batman.
This being said, the actor still hasn't officially confirmed that he's going to return to the cape and cowl. However, it appears that we know which villain The Dark Knight will be taking on in Reeves' new film.
Justin Kroll is a journalist with Variety and he has reported that Batman will be squaring off against The Penguin.
https://twitter.com/krolljvar/status/1001896726553231365
As you can see above, aside from The Batman, Warner Bros. are also developing Birds of Prey.
In case you're not familiar with that property, Birds of Prey is the new ensemble film that will see Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn as the main protagonist. It might also feature a number of female DC characters like Oracle/Batgirl, Black Canary, Huntress, Catwoman, Hawkgirl, Power Girl, Poison Ivy, Vixen, and Katana.
With regards to The Batman, the idea of using The Penguin as the main villain is an intriguing one.
Of course, we all remember Danny DeVito's famous take on the character in Batman Returns - the gigantic duck and the army of weaponised penguins are still batshit brilliant- but we're wondering if Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) is going to feature?
After all, Manganiello is still attached to the project and the character even made a cameo at the end of Justice League.
With regards to the tone and style that Reeves will be adopting for The Batman, the director has previously said that his take on the character will focus more on Batman's skills as a detective.
During the press junket on War for the Planet of the Apes, he said: "In all of my films, what I try to do, in an almost Hitchcockian sense, is use the camera and use the storytelling so that you become that character, and you emphasise with that point of view. There’s a chance to do an almost noir-driven, detective version of Batman that is point-of-view driven in a very, very powerful way, that hopefully is going to connect you to what’s going on inside of his head and inside of his heart.”
We're intrigued.
