Warner Brothers Exec Explains Ben Affleck Choice

A movie executive at Warner Brothers has explained the studio's reasoning for the controversial casting of Ben Affleck as Batman.

The news that the Argo director would be playing the caped crusader sparked an angry backlash on the internet, but producer Charles Roven insisted that he is the right man for the job.

"We wanted a guy who had a certain age and a certain gravitas to what he had done in terms of his recent work," he explained to Variety.

"If you take a look at The Town and Argo, he plays a couple of serious guys in those movies. He's a big man. He's also a mature man.

"As you see him and Henry together, one definitely has much more experience just by looking at him. That's what we wanted, particularly juxtaposed against our Superman."

And he said the studio was happy with Man Of Steel and is keen to build on its success.

"We felt that we accomplished our goals with Man of Steel. Our intention was to bring Superman into the 21st century with a contemporary character and a different kind of superhero than what's out there right now."

But Roven was unwilling to divulge any plot information for the sequel - which is currently being called Batman Vs Superman.

"We knew we had created a world and we had left Easter eggs in the movie that let people know that in the universe that Zack [Snyder] was creating, there was the possibility of other DC characters besides Clark Kent.

"We had a sketch of an idea, the beats of a story that David Goyer worked on with Zack. We have a first draft, and we're continuing to work with it.

"Those scripts are never fully finished until the movie is in the theaters. We love the characters - we think that Ben is going to be a really great and interesting Batman."

Christian Bale this week offered Ben Affleck some advice.