Ben Affleck's solo Batman film is officially a go

It's been rumoured and hinted at for a very long time but a Batman standalone movie has finally been confirmed, with Ben Affleck himself attached to direct.

Warner Bros. made the announcement at their CinemaCon panel in Las Vegas (via Collider), with CEO Kevin Tsujihara noting that "we’re excited to be working with Ben Affleck on a standalone Batman film" while touting DC's upcoming slate.

It recently came to light that Affleck has already written a script with Geoff Johns, which made this announcement a matter of when as opposed to if. Affleck was very convincing as a grizzled Dark Knight in Batman v Superman (even though I didn't much like that his Batman was a xenophobic murderer!), and I'm really interested to see what story they choose to tell.

A film centred on a pre-Dawn of Justice Batman could pay dividends, while it would also be interesting to pick up with the character following the events of Batman v Superman...maybe they can even have the best of both worlds?

In any case, we probably won't be getting any news of that ilk for a while yet; in addition to filming Justice League: Part 1, Affleck is currently hard at work finishing his next feature Live by Night which won't be in cinemas until October 2017. Warner Bros. have earmarked October 5, 2018 and November 1, 2019 as possible future release dates, so there's a good chance that's when we'll be seeing this one.

Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Fishburne, and Amy Adams, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will arrive in UK and US cinemas now.

Images: Warner Bros.