It's been well documented that Justice League star Ben Affleck was originally going to write, direct and star in the movie we now know as The Batman before deciding to part ways with the project, and it's now been confirmed that Warner Bros. did ask Matt Reeves to adapt Affleck's version of the script.
During an interview with Esquire, Reeves revealed that the studio sent him over the script Affleck has co-written with Geoff Johns, and while he did think it was "a totally valid take on the movie," it simply wasn't the more personal Batman story the War For the Planet of The Apes filmmaker was interested in telling.
"It was very action driven. It was very deeply connected to the DCEU, with other major characters from other movies and other comics popping up. I just knew that when I read it this particular script was not the way I’d want to do it,” Reeves explained.
We know Affleck's film would have pitted The Dark Knight against Deathstroke, but it sounds like it would also have featured some other members of the Justice League. Reeves went to WB and told them he wasn't the man for the job, laying out the direction he'd rather take the character in.
“I told them that there have been so many great movies, but if I were to do this, I’d have to make it personal, so that I understood what I was going to do with it, so that I know where to put the camera, so that I know what to tell the actors, so that I know what the story should be. This take, I told them, pointing at the script, is a totally valid and exciting take. It is almost James Bond-ian, but it wasn’t something that I quite related to.”
Reeves, who was still busy working on Apes at the time, told the studio that he couldn't even elaborate on his idea for the film at that moment, and would understand if they wanted to pass. "To my utter shock and surprise, they said, ‘you know what, we really would like you to do this. And we will wait.’”
The Batman is set to hit theaters on March 4.