Ben Affleck and Geoff Johns to Co-Write Standalone BATMAN Movie For Warner Bros.

For a while, rumors have been spreading about Ben Affleck directing a solo Batman film called The Batman that would come out sometime after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the two-part Justice League. It makes all sorts of sense: Affleck has a great relationship with the people at WB, and he's an Oscar-winning filmmaker who also happens to be playing The Dark Knight for the studio. If anyone's invested in how these movies turn out, it's him.

Now Deadline reports that Affleck is teaming with DC Comics' Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns to write the solo Batman film, which is being set up as the next project in Affleck's pipeline following his next directorial effort Live By Night, which just received a greenlight earlier today. Johns has tons of experience in comics as well as TV, writing for shows like Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash. Fans should be pretty pleased with this news, and it also puts Affleck more directly in the creative driver's seat: Chris Terrio did writing work on Batman v Superman and Justice League, but his name isn't anywhere to be seen in this report. Affleck apparently wants to guide this project with his own hand, and the speculation is that the script could be finished as early as this summer before Live By Night begins filming in November.

Exciting stuff!