New Details on Ben Affleck's BATMAN Film Which Was a Dark Film Set in Arkham Asylum

Years ago when Ben Affleck was writing and directing his solo Batman movie for DC and Warner Bros. it was rumored that the story would be set in Arkham Asylum and feature a ton of Batman villains. Well, it turns out that this rumor was true.

Robert Richardson, who was hired as the cinematographer on the unmade Ben Affleck Batman movie recently shared some information on the script for the film while a guest on the HappySadConfused podcast. He said:

“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.”

When it was brought up that Arkham really has never been explored on the big screen before, Richardson said:

“No, and that’s where we were going. I was very interested in that one.”

He went on to say that the movie would have dove into the more insane aspects of the character:

“Well, he was going more into the insanity aspects. So I think you would’ve seen something a little darker than what we’ve seen in the past and more into the individual, who was inside Batman – what element may be sane and what element may actually not be sane. So he was entering into a little more of the Arkham, as you know, he’s going into where you keep everyone who was bad…it was very fascinating to go to the darker side of Batman.”

While I’m, super excited for Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Affleck’s version of the film certainly would have been interesting and I honestly think fans would have dug it! I would have loved to see Batman fighting to survive in Arkham Asylum! Unfortunately the studio didn’t care for the script. When previously talking about that script earlier this year, Affleck said:

“We worked on the script, I was trying to figure out how to crack it, and I was never happy enough with it where I thought it was worth going out and making it because I just didn’t want to do a version that I wasn’t really excited by, so I still don’t know.”

The short lived version of Ben Affleck’s Batman has ended. I actually liked Affleck in the role, but DC and WB are obviously moving on and this version of the Dark Knight is not in their future plans.

Would you have liked to see Affleck get to make his Arkham Asylum Batman movie?