Jay Oliva is a storyboard artist and former DCAU director who worked very closely with Zack Snyder on several DCEU films. In a new interview, he shared some details on what Ben Affleck was going to explore in his solo Batman film.
“I can't really say too much other than it was [frick]ing awesome,” Oliva shared. “It was the best. It was amazing.”
"From my understanding, there were a couple of drafts of it,” Oliva told Inverse. “When I was brought on, I don't know whether it was the second draft or something, but it was what Geoff Johns and Ben [Affleck] had shown me."
"Ben's story was gonna cover something that had never really been covered in comics but was building off of storylines in the Batman mythos over the last 80 years and approaching it from a new kind of perspective."
“It was very clever and there were a lot of things about it that I really loved that I wish that had come to fruition,” Oliva says. “It was a really great project in the beginning. Ben had to step away for personal reasons, and I totally understood, but the time that I spent with Ben working on the project was fantastic."
Oliva's DCAU credits include directing Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Justice League War, and more.
For Snyder, Oliva provided storyboard art for Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The pair are set to reunite on Netflix's animated Twilight of the Gods.
Based on Oliva's comments, it's clear he was going to storyboard concepts for Affleck's Batman movie before the project was scrapped.
Past interviews have also shared that Affleck was looking to explore Arkham Asylum and that Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke was set to be the primary antagonist.
Before Matt Reeves decided to cast Robert Pattinson in The Batman, WB sent Affleck's script and gave Reeves the option to direct the project if he chose to do so.
He previously shared, "It was a standalone Batman film that was centered on Ben’s version of the character, but it was more action-driven than what I felt I could do. I didn’t connect to the movie—in terms of me as a filmmaker. It was very James Bond-ian; it was filled with a lot of set pieces. It could have been a very exciting movie for someone else to do, but it wasn’t for me to do."