*UPDATE* Ben Affleck to direct 'Justice League' for Warner Brothers?

 *UPDATE* Classic Deadline. The site is reporting that Variety's story about Ben Affleck and Justice League is all wrong, and that Warner Brothers isn't hiring him to direct it. But...that's not what Variety's story said at all. It just states WB wants him to do it. Deadline's Mike Fleming says Affleck's reps are denying he'll take the job. We shall see.*

Let's see if we can get through this without mentioning The Avengers. D'oh, too late! Obviously, Warner Brothers has been taking quite the measured approach with their build up to a Justice League movie, borne mostly out of necessity since their side of the superhero fence is so unstable. Green Lantern's a disaster, Man of Steel is unproven, and Batman is out of the picture for awhile. While it's unlikely that the studio would hand over the reigns of their iconic properties so completely the way Marvel has just done with Joss Whedon, they may be looking to rely on one of their in-house darlings to help make Justice League a reality.

Variety reports that Ben Affleck is the guy WB is eying for the directing job, with a meeting to take place soon to hammer out the issue. Christopher Nolan having delcared himself superhero-free recently, Affleck makes for a logical next option. He's been the studio's go-to guy ever since earning such critical and box office acclaim for The Town, and has the hostage drama, Argo, on the way for them as well. Clearly, they have big hopes of turning Affleck into their next franchise director, tapping him for an adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, not to mention a remake of Guillaume Canet's Tell No One. Affleck has a lot on the table right now, and taking on Justice League would pretty much take him out of the picture for years. Affleck is also circling a role in Replay, the long-developing sci-fi film from Greg Berlani. Will Beal(Gangster Squad) was brought on last year to start penning a Justice League script, and so far Affleck is the only guy who's been sent a copy.

Does Affleck make for a good fit, though? It's a tough call, really. Warner Brothers has mostly kept a more grounded approach with their superheroes so far, and Affleck would seem to be the guy for capturing that sort of tone. But it's also going to require some really huge action sequences, which aren't his strong suit. Whatever the case, we're likely not going to see Justice League until mid-2015 or later, so we may be talking about this for awhile as other names emerge.