Batman is one of the most popular characters in American history.
The billionaire playboy by day and vigilante at night has a historical relevance like James Bond in film where they’ll never stop telling stories with different actors donning the roles.
But you’ll never believe the three words George Clooney told Ben Affleck before he took on Batman.
George Clooney has one of the most fascinating Hollywood careers. The two-time Academy Award winner began his career on the hit show, “E.R.,” and his TV star popularity catapulted in to movies with his breakout role in the Quentin Tarantino written and Robert Rodriguez directed, “From Dusk Till Dawn.”
“From Dusk Till Dawn” wasn’t a huge hit in theaters; only grossing $25 million domestically. But the R-rated part fugitive-escape-to-Mexico and part vampire-horror became a smash hit cult classic once it hit video stores.
Clooney was primed to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but then he had a string of adequate box-office bombs like “One Fine Day,” “The Peacemaker,” and “Out of Sight.” Hollywood scratched their heads wondering how these movies weren’t making money.
Then they guaranteed him success with his next film, “Batman and Robin,” almost inarguably the worst of all the Batman films. It grossed a measly $238 million worldwide on a $125 million production budget – and when you account for prints and advertising, it probably lost money. Critics panned it and audiences hated it even more. It currently holds a 10 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Clooney has publicly shamed his performance and “Batman and Robin” on a number of different occasions, but it was Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan who saved the character. After Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, Warner Bros. and DC decided to shake it up and cast Ben Affleck in the titular role.
Now, Clooney mostly writes/directs mostly and they’re either hit or miss.
And then Clooney recently admitted in his promotion for his upcoming Hulu show “Catch-22,” before Affleck accepted the role, he said, “Don’t do it.”
Clooney told The Hollywood Reporter, “I actually did talk to him about it. I said, ‘Don’t do it. It was only from my experience, which is, you know…”
Christian Bale probably didn’t seek out his advice and thankfully so.
But the three times Ben Affleck has appeared as Batman in the Warner Bros. new slate “Batman v Superman,” “Suicide Squad” and “The Justice League,” were all marginal at best. One could argue they were all dreadful.
Ben Affleck has confirmed he would no longer don the suit any longer and as of right now, Warner Bros. and DC don’t seem to care much about recasting the legendary character.
Several years ago Warner Bros. and DC cast Jared Leto as the infamous Joker character but then bizarrely recast Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” which is also produced by Martin Scorsese.
It looks like the direction of the DC universe is just aimless at this point and seems like there are too many producers putting their stamp on the project, which makes all these films seem unfocused meandering.
Ben Affleck made a lot of money so that’s probably why he refused Clooney’s advice.
