Ben Affleck approached to direct ‘Justice League’

It will take a super director to take on the superhero team movie "Justice League." Variety is reporting that Warner Bros. has approached Ben Affleck to lead the DC comic book project.

Affleck isn't Joss Whedon, the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" wunderkind who directed the megahit "The Avengers." And he's not Christopher Nolan, who brought back Batman in the "Dark Knight" trilogy's stunning reboot -- and who already said 'no' to a 'Justice League' movie.

But the 39-year-old Affleck is a successful director ("The Town"), an Oscar-winning writer ("Good Will Hunting"), and an actor who even suited up as Superman in the biopic about George Reeves (who played the superhero on TV) in "Hollywoodland."

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Similar to the Marvel comic book-based "Avengers," "Justice League" would star a team of superheroes. Headliners could include the DC comic book characters Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash.
"Justice League" chatter comes along with news that Whedon has agreed to direct the "Avengers 2" movie.

Interest in "Justice League" on the Web sent a storm of comments to Twitter, leading the movie title to become a trending topic. Comments included, from
Steven Weintraub @colliderfrosty, "Ben Affleck has proven himself to be a great director. If he wants to do Justice League, I'm all for it."

ErikDavis @ErikDavis joked, "I will only back an Affleck-directed 'Justice League' movie if all the superheroes have thick Boston accents."

Seth Grahame-Smith @sethgs added, "For those who say there's no chance for peace in our time -- a Marvel character might direct a Justice League movie."

The Marvel character Affleck played is one project the actor might prefer people forget. The star took on the role of "Daredevil," a movie that he told MTV led him to swear off superhero films.

But Affleck's superhero past doesn't seem to bother Warner Bros. Sources told Variety that the actor and director is the only candidate to receive Will Beall's script.

Not that anything's certain. Variety says talks will happen in the coming days. One point to possibly iron out: Affleck has said in the past that he'd direct only movies in which he could also star. So could the A-lister be slipping into a spandex outfit for justice?

SlashFilm doesn't think so, pointing out that the director of "Argo" told England's Daily Record in 2010, "If there's anything I can promise you, it's that the years of superhero are behind me."

But directing a bunch of superheroes could be in Affleck's future.