Manganiello Lays Out Affleck's Scrapped Batman Film
Joe Manganiello has spelled out the Ben Affleck Batman film that never reached the screen, with Deathstroke taking Bruce Wayne's life apart piece by piece.
The account comes in Manganiello's memoir Bloodlines, published on Tuesday, 13 October by Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, as detailed by Variety. Manganiello was set to reprise Deathstroke, the mercenary villain he played briefly in 2017's Justice League, as the main antagonist.
Affleck was attached as writer, director, producer and star of the project. He envisaged it as a superhero version of David Fincher's The Game, the 1997 thriller about a man whose life is systematically dismantled.
At the centre was revenge. Deathstroke is led to believe Batman killed his son. In response, he sets out to destroy everything around Bruce Wayne.
The escalation was brutal. The plan called for Deathstroke to murder Commissioner Gordon, hold Alfred Pennyworth hostage and break into the Batcave. A separate report on the memoir notes an Arkham Asylum-inspired fight was also planned, in the style of the video games set in the prison fortress, according to IGN.
Batgirl was part of the story too. Deathstroke would have nearly killed both Batman and Batgirl in one fight before they escaped on an aboveground train. The film would have ended with a one-on-one showdown through the streets of Gotham.
What makes this stand out is the scale. For fans, this is the first full outline of a film long discussed in fragments. It never shot. Affleck stepped away from the role, and the project was dropped.
