Comic-Con News:  Reports from San Diego indicate that Ben Affleck, who stars as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, is working with DC’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns on the script for a standalone Batman movie, which Affleck would also star in and direct.  Deadline reports that Johns and Affleck “are well in synch and have more than found their rhythm,” and “are likely to turn in a script before the end of summer.” 

Affleck, who collaborated with Matt Damon on the script for his first movie Good Will Hunting, also co-wrote the screenplay for his adaptation of Lehane’s Gone Baby Gone in 2007.  He is an accomplished screenwriter and would appear to have found a great partner in Johns, a veteran comic book scribe who is responsible for some of the greatest Green Lantern story arcs ever, is currently writing DC’s Justice League, and has had considerable input on the DC Comics-based TV series like Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash.

Affleck is planning to direct his adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel Live By Night starting in November.  Since Affleck already postponed Live By Night to play Batman in Dawn of Justice, it is likely that he would have to wait until Live By Night has wrapped before starting to direct the standalone Batman movie, which is supposedly set after the events in Dawn of Justice, which is due out in March of next year, and the Justice League movie that is slated to debut on November 17, 2017.

There has been no word yet on where the standalone Batman film will be slotted by Warner Bros.  It was not mentioned in the most recent series of comic book-movie release dates from Warner Bros. (see “Warners Announces 9 More DC Movies”), though 2018 is a possibility, especially now that The Lego Movie helmers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have apparently backed off from their Flash movie, which was to have had a 2018 release, in favor of directing a Star Wars film (see “Lego Movie Helmers to Direct Han Solo Star Wars Spin-Off”).