I’m Batfleck.
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It came out Friday night (or at least hit my Twitter feed Friday night, via Kevin Smith) that the next Batman is no other than Daredevil himself, Ben Affleck.
Now. I like Ben Affleck. I’m a huge oldschool ViewAskewniverse fan, and Affleck did some great work with KSmith. Also, he was the bomb in Phantoms. Yo.
As I sit here, though, and I try to picture Ben Affleck as Batman, I end up picturing George Clooney as Batman: genial, amicable, with a cockeyed smile and a goddamned BATMAN credit card. A CREDIT CARD!
*ahem*
It doesn’t click, not right off the bat. (OF COURSE the pun was intended.) It’s not RDJ announced as Tony Stark. It’s not Chris Hemsworth announced as Thor, or Henry Cavill as Superman, or Michael Chiklis as the Thing. (Yes, the Fantastic Four movies were heinous but he was the absolute right guy for that part.) It’s the dude from Chasing Amy and Reindeer Games as Batman.
Yeesh.
Then I think of late rcareer Affleck. The Affleck of Argo who could have won a Best Actor Oscar. The Affleck of The Town who proved he could play scary. I begin to think, you know what? That Affleck could pull this off. That Affleck could work. Maybe I’m interested to see how this pans out. Because, hey, you know what other actor name didn’t click with the role immediately?
Heath Ledger, announced as the Joker.
For me, as always, this really isn’t about Ben Affleck. It’s about the infinitesimal amount of faith I have in Warner Bros./DC being able to get a comic book movie right. So I could have really used this casting announcement to click. Instead, we get Ben Affleck, the man who was billed in Mallrats as Buttman, playing Batman.
So. Here we are. You’re Batman, Affleck. You’re Batman. Do us all a favor, and be the bomb in this, too.
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Tom Hoefner (@TomHoefner on Twitter) is a playwright, theatre director, college professor, and would-be novelist living in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.
Check out “From the Casefiles of Race and Cookie McCloud”, a blog of super-short stories chronicling the adventures of Race McCloud, Private Eye, and his 15-year old former-secret-agent-in-training niece Cookie: http://raceandcookie.blogspot.com
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Tom!
It’s a bold move by Warner to cast Affleck, but he is a two time Oscar winner, and his career as of late has been pretty stellar. I’m with you in the sense that he really needs to nail this. Like Robert Downy Jr. did for Tony Stark, Ben Affleck needs to make us BELIEVE that he is not only Bruce Wanye, but also the Dark Knight.
We have a year and a half to see the end result.
*Edit the damn misspelling of Wayne. I’m such a loser*
Wanye, Tim? Is that like the Kanye West version of Bruce Wayne?
So true, Leo! I must say though, that I love the pre-pubescent Affleck photo that’s up there. It makes the news look totally horrible, lol.
I think he might be the perfect person. Everyone was going to hate anyone cast to the role after Bale anyway, so why not pick someone everyone is going to complain about, assume will screw things up, and then be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t all together suck?
