Where’s the justice? Ben Affleck to direct and star in another Batman movie, despite not-so-super debut

Oscar-winner Ben Affleck is to direct and star in a standalone Batman movie, Warner Bros said Wednesday, reprising his caped crusader role after critics savaged the character’s latest cinematic outing.

The film was among a raft of DC superhero features announced in a presentation by studio chief Kevin Tsujihara at the annual CinemaCon convention and confirmed in an email.

It marks the first official confirmation of the widely rumoured project and comes after Affleck told a press event for the widely panned Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that he was interested in directing a superhero blockbuster.

Dawn of Justice received almost universally poor reviews, although it enjoyed one of the biggest-ever domestic opening weekends and Affleck’s performance was widely acknowledged as one of the film’s few redeeming features.

The 43-year-old, who has already directed critical and commercial hits The Town and Argo, revealed ahead of the March release of Dawn of Justice that he had felt “emboldened” watching director Zack Snyder at work and would consider making his own superhero movie.

“I’ve wondered about directing movies like this before and it was a really valuable learning experience for me to watch Zack do it and see how he did it,” said Affleck, whose Argo won best picture at the Oscars in 2013.