One of the most remarkable things about “The Lego Batman Movie” (which, it should be noted, I respectfully liked more than my Playlist colleague) is watching an entire movie troll the history of DC comics on the big screen. Whether doing playful callbacks to previous films with visual or score cues, or straight up jabbing efforts like “Suicide Squad,” the animated film mocks the oversized, self-serious Batman we’ve seen before in increasingly overstuffed movies, but uses all those very same traits — Will Arnett‘s Batman broods, ‘Lego Batman’ has almost every villain under the sun — to create the kind of superhero movie Warner Bros. hasn’t been able to make post-Nolan. It’s fun, clever, and features some very memorable setpieces. And I can only imagine it makes the task of mounting “The Batman” and avoiding the traps and motifs we seen in previous pictures, that much more difficult.
The status of the project at the moment is fairly common knowledge: Ben Affleck is no longer directing, and the script he co-wrote with DC Films head honcho Geoff Johns is getting a rewrite from Chris Terrio (“Argo,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice“). However, it seems we’re just at the start of what could be a massive overhaul on the project.
In a (very) lengthy report from Forbes, it’s revealed that the original draft of “The Batman” not only featured baddie Deathstroke (set to be played by Joe Manganiello), but also Jared Leto‘s Joker, and possibly more villains as part of the story. While to some it might be yet another indication that Warner Bros. has learned nothing from two movies already overloaded with characters, it seems the script will be undergoing further rewrites, or will be tossed entirely, with a new one drawn up from scratch.
Depending how long this process takes, it will likely factor into a projected release in 2019. And while some may say this is more evidence that WB and DC have no idea what they’re doing, this is also an indication that cameras won’t roll until they have something in place that everyone is happy with, especially Affleck.