The comic book movie volleyball game is on.

Yesterday, Marvel Studios/Disney scored hard with their announcement of Joss Whedon helming The Avengers 2 and overseeing the development of the next few years of the Marvel Theatrical Universe.

So, Warner Bros/DC Comics? Your serve.

And that leads to today’s news - according to the fine folks at Variety, Warner Bros has approached Ben Affleck with the gig of directing the forthcoming Justice League film.

WB has been working for years to get the DC Comics theatrical properties off the ground, but besides the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, none have taken off. Next Summer’s release of Man of Steel is supposed to kick start the latest attempt, and a script for Justice League (featuring Superman, Batman, The Flash and others) has been completed.

One could assume given Affleck’s previous directorial work that this may also mean an on-screen role for the star, but there is no confirmation of that at this time.

Personally, having really enjoyed Gone Baby Gone, having found The Town to be solid (if not strongly aping Heat) and really looking forward to this fall’s Argo, I think Affleck is one of the stronger choices to be looked at for a difficult to fill director’s seat.

We’ll see what happens.

Source: Variety.