Over the weekend, writer Bret Easton Ellis made waves following comments that the script for Ben Affleck's Batman movie was apparently dealing with a lot of issues. However, now he's regretting those statements. Following his comments with The Ringer, Ellis is now clarifying that his information was not first hand, and that he has no first-hand knowledge of the film whatever.
I was talking with two executives who have NOTHING to do with the Batman movie and who KNEW people who were involved with the production. The two executives I was having dinner with were relating the problems they had heard about the script from people working on the Batman project--that's all. I know no one involved with the Batman movie and I didn't realize that my comments would make it into The Ringer piece or else I wouldn't have cited that particular movie--I have no idea what the Batman script is like and I regret that it came off as if I was disparaging the project.
The comments surfaced last week during an interview when Bret Easton Ellis used the upcoming Batman project as an example how Hollywood is changing. According to his story, there were people dealing with the Batman film who had brought potential issues with the script to the attention of higher-level execs, who reportedly didn't care about the problems because the movie was guaranteed to make money anyway. Ellis then turned to Facebook to clarify the situation.
In his defense, Bret Easton Ellis was very clear in his initial statement that the story he was telling was not first hand. He had no specific examples of the alleged problems with the script, he was just passing on a story he'd heard over dinner.
Of course, that doesn't change how people react. This is Batman after all. The most bankable part of DC's cast of characters, also part of the DC Extended Universe, a part of Hollywood that already has more than its share of detractors. It's far from surprising that many would job on this. For whatever reason, many have decided that they have a vested interest in either attacking or defending DC's film universe, so the first group jumped on the comments as proof that DC's films are still in trouble. The other half attacked Ellis for disparaging the film at all, especially this early in the production when the script has not been finalized yet.
It's clear that people are taking these films, and Batman especially, very seriously. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Bret Easton Ellis to follow-up his original interview with more. We're so far out from a new Batman movie at this point that even if there are those that intentionally turn a blind eye to script issues, that doesn't mean the issues will never get fixed. Ben Affleck himself has said repeatedly that it's important to him that the script be right. We would fully expect that he would be willing to listen to any potential problems the current script has.
There's totally plenty of time to make Batman work, even if the current script does have issues, right? Let us know what you think in the comments.
