Ben Affleck is likely never going to live down his performance in DAREDEVIL. Fans and critics lambasted the film so brutally that even after directing three great films in a row, Affleck is still being roasted for DAREDEVIL and pre-emptively for BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. Many folks are willing to give the more mature Ben Affleck a pass until they actually see him in action as the Dark Knight, but that doesn't mean their cries fall on deaf ears. Affleck himself even owns up to what went wrong with DAREDEVIL.
In a recent interview with NPR, Affleck weighed in on what went wrong with DAREDEVIL, a film based on a comic book that the actor has said countless times was a personal favorite.
Indeed I have regrets about DAREDEVIL. I have regrets about all the movies that I don’t think were executed properly. … Look, if I thought we were remaking DAREDEVIL, I’d be out there picketing myself … and that goes for other movies as well that I haven’t been happy with. You know, I’m hard on myself and I have exacting standards and I want to do excellent work and I don’t always succeed, but I think you have to start out with that drive.
From the sounds of it, Affleck almost sounds like he approached DAREDEVIL as an automatic slam dunk and left the project on cruise control. At the time, Affleck also did not have the same clout he does now, which means that BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE should be heads and tails better than DAREDEVIL, right? Why should we have faith?
['Batman v Superman'] was written by Chris Terrio, who wrote Argo, who’s not a comic guy. And it’s directed by Zach Snyder, who’s a incredibly magical sort of visual stylist who’s steeped in the comic world. And you have this sandwich of talents. I felt very confident about it. … I thought it would be nice to make one of these movies really, really good.
While MAN OF STEEL had a large number of detractors, gone is David S. Goyer as screenwriter and the Oscar-winning Terrio is now on board. Affleck seems to be exerting a good deal of influence on the superhero project, hopefully due to the studio trusting in his abilities as a filmmaker as well as an actor. I doubt Zack Snyder is giving up any control, but I am sure Warner Bros is doing everything they can to ensure this will be a movie both fans and critics can get behind.
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE is slated to hit theaters on March 25, 2016.
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