The title for Ben Affleck’s upcoming standalone Batman film, which he is writing, directing, and starring in, will be The Batman — or at least it will be for now. The curt moniker was revealed by Affleck himself during an interview at a press junket for his upcoming thriller, The Accountant, where he revealed the title but was quick to point out that, as the film is still in pre-production, the name could still very well change.
Nevertheless, after the bloated mouthful of a title that Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was, a simple name like The Batman is mercifully welcome, and feels appropriate given this is Affleck’s first solo outing as the world’s greatest winged detective. Affleck also gave a quick update on the film’s progress, assuring fans that the script was moving along nicely.
This revelation comes in the wake of the announcement, via a Tweet from Affleck’s Twitter account, that Joe Manganiello will be playing the film’s villain, Deathstroke. Affleck shared some footage of Manganiello as the gun-toting mercenary, and expressed his interest and excitement in including Deathstroke as the villain for his film. It has also been revealed that J.K. Simmons will be taking on the role of Commissioner Gordon, and will make his debut in the upcoming Justice League film.
Hopefully Affleck’s passion for the project, and his experience as a director, writer, and actor, will have a positive effect for The Batman, especially given the very mixed reception that Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice met with. With any luck, the simple title will turn out to reflect a clear vision for the upcoming movie, that will meet with fan approval.
A release date for The Batman has yet to be announced.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?