Warner Bros. Approaching Ben Affleck To Direct 'Justice League'

Another day, another huge superhero team up update. Variety reports Warner Bros. has approached actor/director Ben Affleck to direct their DC Comics superhero team up film, Justice League. He's the first director to see Will Beall's script and will discuss the option and possibilities of the project in the coming weeks. Read much more after the jump.

In Variety's story, they point out Warner Bros. was (obviously) hoping Christopher Nolan would help out with this massive film. However, when Nolan took his name out of the mix, they started to eye Affleck, who made The Town a big hit for the studio, is finishing Argo, and was approached to direct another huge WB property, The Stand, an option that's still viable once Argo is done.

But The Town and Argo were not only are directed by Affleck, he stars in them too. The Oscar-winner has said in the past that he'd like to only direct films he stars in. That would lead one to believe he'd either break that statement with a huge film like Justice League or possibly play on of the film's stars, likely to include some combination of Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman and others. That's the kind of thing which will likely be discussed in the coming days.

It's hard to gauge where Affleck might stand on this. On the one hand, actor turned directors have had great success with superhero films (see Jon Favreau with Iron Man and Kenneth Branagh with Thor). But neither of those guys played a superhero before, which Affleck did in both Hollywoodland and Daredevil. In 2009 he told MTV that latter experience pretty much soured him on the genre.

No, I would not do another. I was cured of that. That experience was not that much fun. And it's not something I'm particularly looking to go through again.

He added the following to the Daily Record:

If there's anything I can promise you, it's that the years of superhero are behind me.

But were they really? He then floated the idea of directing Man of Steel for Warner Bros. before Zack Snyder got the job and, after turning it down, told Hitfix he didn't think he could spend that much time with that subject:

In general, going forward, for me it's about 'What movie am I interested in making? What movie do I really connect to?' If the director isn't secure enough about it, the movie won't work. Directing a movie takes a year or two years. You've got to love it as much on day 500 as you do on day one other wise it's not going to work. So, It just means there is a forced judiciousness for me. Even the kind of thing I'd do as an actor for 10 weeks? I could try a character? I can't do that as a director. I have to be part of a story I want to tell.

So we'll have to wait and see what kind of specifics Warner Bros. and Affleck hammer out. Anyone one can change their mind at any time. The good news is that whether or not he decides to direct, star, direct and star or pass, Warner Bros. is confident enough in the script to start going out to directors. That Avengers 2 news probably didn't hurt either.

Ben Affleck + Justice League. Discuss.