We the undersigned, call on the following (Netflix, Amazon Studios, Universal Picitres, Warner Bros Discovery, Inc., David Zaslav, Pam Abdy, Michael DeLuca, Max, WarnerMedia and DC Comics) to greenlight the formerly planned solo Batman film set in the DC Extended Universe that was to be directed, written, produced by and starring Ben Affleck in the title role (should he still wish to proceed with the project). We also request that he be given full creative control over the project in order to ensure its highest quality as well as best represent his vision as director.

Ben Affleck has been nominated for two academy awards and has won in both instances, the first of which was for the 1997 film Good Will Hunting in which he won the best original screenplay award alongside Matt Damon. The second was for the 2012 film Argo, a film he directed which went on to win the best picture award. The key detail to take away from this is that he would serve both roles as director and writer on his solo Batman film.

In addition, the cinematographer for the film was set to be Robert Richardson, who is tied in 4th place for being the most awarded in history for the best cinematography category with 3 wins and 10 nominations. There is also the opportunity for the film to unite a cast of considerable acting talent (by way of critical acclaim) in major roles. This may include best actor winner Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, best supporting actor winner Jared Leto as The Joker, best actress and best supporting actress nominee Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and best supporting actor winner J.K. Simmons as Commisioner James Gordon.

Jay Oliva is a storyboard artist and animated film director whose credits as a storyboard artist include Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League and as a director include: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Assault On Arkham, Batman VS Robin and Batman: Bad Blood. He clearly has strong credentials and experience when it comes to portraying and understanding the Batman character. He was also working as a storyboard artist on Ben Affleck’s Batman film during the pre-production phase, prior to Affleck stepping down as director. Having naturally read the script, he later shared on Twitter in 2018 that “The original Affleck script was the best Batman script I’ve ever read. Ben had a kick ass story and I believe that the audience and fans would have loved it.” This not only is a show of quality for the script but also tells us that it would be loved by the general movie going audience. He was also quoted in 2020 as saying “I was working with Ben Affleck personally just prior to him leaving the project and not once did he seem like he didn’t want to be Batman. His version of Batman in his solo movie would have made fans proud.”

Another reason to move forward with the project is that in the time since stepping down as director and star, DC Films have publicly promoted the concept of the DC Multiverse when it comes to the productions and stories of the DC Comics films they produce. The upcoming film The Flash not only features Affleck reprising his role but also Michael Keaton returning to portray his incarnation of the character. As well as this, DC Films also produced the 2019 Todd Phillips directed film Joker which portrayed a version of the title character played by Joaquin Phoenix which was completely separate from the DCEU version as played by Jared Leto in Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. This not only shows a trust in the general audience to be able to accept and understand separate interpretations and continuitys for comic book characters, but also that given high quality films are delivered, then oversaturation would not be an issue given Joker’s box office gross of over $1 billion.

An option we suggest for Ben Affleck’s solo Batman project would be (given it would of course receive the budget it required) to possibly have it debut as an HBO Max original (similar to Zack Snyder’s Justice League) so that it would not interfere with the planned upcoming Batman trilogy directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson, which can stay exclusively as a theatrical debut so that one does not impact the success of the other. As well as this, to our current knowledge, Ben Affleck only ever intended to star in one solo Batman film, meaning that there would be very little risk of oversataturation when it comes to Batman films. (Ergo, there wouldn’t be two trilogies happening concurrently from Reeves and Affleck.)

Ben Affleck’s version of Batman we’ve seen in the DC Extended Universe whom debuted in Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice is also one which we’d had yet to see on the silver screen. The two major continuities when it came to Batman in film (the original series directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher as well as the Christopher Nolan directed Dark Knight Trilogy) both opened with a Batman who was either of a young age, early in his career or both. Ben Affleck’s Batman gave us something new, one who was well into his war on crime, having been doing so for 20 years. This not only allows to see Batman at the peak of his abilities but also to see a full Batman universe in Gotham City that is rich with history and has an established supporting cast of allies and villains. With Reeves’ version of Batman set to once again follow the former path, we feel it would be a real missed opportunity to not fully explore this incarnation with audiences and give them something new. Especially while Ben Affleck still feels he is not too old to play the role.

As well as this, Joe Manganiello was confirmed to have been reprising his role (from Zack Snyder’s Justice League) as Deathstroke/Slade Wilson in the film, acting as the main antagonist of the story. Much like Ben Affleck’s take on the caped crusader, this would break new ground for superhero cinema as this incarnation of Deathstroke is not just the first to appear in a Batman film but the first to appear cinematically in general and his planned appearance in this film would be the first major role the character would play. Manganiello was a fan-favourite choice for the role and the Deathstroke character would prove a truly intimidating and dangerous foe both physically and mentally for Batman to face off against.

Ben Affleck has also made it clear on numerous instances that a significant factor for him previously stepping down from the role was due to his experiences on the reshoots of Justice League post Zack Snyder leaving the film. Ben has stated in interviews that he was skeptical of taking the role, but that Zack Snyder’s vision for his character was what convinced him to sign on. We believe it is no coincidence that him stepping down and then proceeding to return to the role is directly linked to Snyder’s involvement in the DC Extended Universe, with Zack having since returned to complete his director’s cut of Justice League. Ben has since returned to partake in additional photography for that project and as previously mentioned would be reprising the role in the upcoming DCEU film The Flash. This clearly shows that he is still willing to portray the character in new instances given the right circumstances and that stepping down from the role previously was more indicative of the heavy studio interference from those in power at Warner Bros Pictures at the time.

To end, we feel like now more than ever is the perfect time to revive this project and grant Ben the oppertunity to create not just an amazing superhero film, but an amazing film in general. This is due to the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League which was in production whilst Ben’s film was being developed. As a result, this was a showcase of the creative worldbuilding between Zack Snyder and Ben Affleck, with one of the final scenes marking the debut appearance of Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke as well as directly teasing the events of Ben’s planned film. We feel it would be a complete disservice to deprive the audience of the payoff for an unresolved plot thread during the era of Ben returning to the role as well as a talent packed new installment of DC Comic’s highest grossing character cinematically.