Ben Affleck talks about the possibility of directing his own Batman movie

When Ben Affleck signed on to play Batman in Zack Snyder’s superhero mash-up “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” it didn’t take long for speculation to start swirling that he was interested in more than just putting on the Dark Knight’s cape and cowl.

Having established himself as a successful director in his own right with films such as “The Town” and “Argo,” many wondered, did Affleck see “Batman v Superman” as a stepping stone to eventually directing his own stand-alone Batman movie?

Neither Affleck nor Warner Bros. has officially confirmed reports of such a plan. But speaking with The Times recently alongside Snyder and co-star Henry Cavill, the actor acknowledged that part of his motivation from the outset for joining “Batman v Superman,” which hits theaters March 25, was to get an up-close preview of what it would be like to be at the helm of a big-budget comic-book movie. 

“Wanting at some point to direct one of these movies, I didn’t think I was going to have a better chance to learn on set and watch how they’re made now,” Affleck said.

Watching Snyder work on set seems to have only further stoked Affleck’s desire to get behind the camera.

“One of the things that I was afraid of was that it would be just incredibly boring and technical and mind-numbing,” Affleck said. “Instead, I saw that auteur filmmakers can exert their voice in a movie like this, even if it has 2,000 effects shots.”

Indeed, as the director of a Batman movie, Affleck would clearly be able to exert far greater control over the depiction of the character than he has solely as an actor.

“The director plays a lot of Batman for you,” Affleck said. “The director creates the world. The Batmobile, the Batcave, a lot of the stunts – a lot of that is the director’s actual work. [As an actor], you play Bruce Wayne." 

All that said, at this point there is still no stand-alone Batman movie officially scheduled on Warner Bros.' DC Expanded Universe slate, and Affleck – who is currently in post-production on his period crime film “Live by Night” – insisted he hasn’t committed himself one way or the other.

“I’m definitely a one-at-a-time guy,” he said. “I’m editing ‘Live by Night’ now. When I finish that, I’ll figure out what I’m going to do next.”

Twitter: @joshrottenberg