david j. moore chats with Jay Oliva, director of Batman: Assault on Arkham, at the San Diego Comic-Con International…
Fans of Marvel’s and DC’s recent animated feature films should be familiar with director Jay Oliva’s work. Among other projects, he’s helmed Marvel’s Doctor Strange (2007) and The Invincible Iron Man (2007), DC’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Parts 1 and 2 (2013), Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013) and Justice League: War (2014), and now his latest feature Batman: Assault on Arkham has been completed and is set to introduce a new line of animated features based on the videogame franchise that began with Batman: Arkham Asylum. Oliva’s enthusiastic, sincere approach to the animated realm of superhero storytelling is infectious, and here he answers some questions concerning his latest endeavor.
david j. moore: Was there any collaboration between you and WB Montreal, the game developer for the videogame Batman: Arkham Origins for your new film Batman: Assault on Arkham?
Jay Oliva: Oh yeah. From the very beginning, we asked for the character designs so that we could get everything right. We went back and forth. This was based on the videogames, so even Batman looked different. He’s taller and wider. We designed all of the characters based on Batman’s proportions.
djm: Did you make different directorial choices because it was based on a videogame?
JO: The one thing from a directing standpoint that I wanted to do was that I wanted it to feel like you were playing a videogame, but I didn’t want to be hamstrung by it. I didn’t want it to look like an ad for the videogame. I wanted an original, organic storyline that fit in the Batman universe. Normally, I direct epic, sweeping animated films, but this one I wanted it to be more like a Guy Ritchie film. If I’d directed like I’d directed an earlier project I’d done in the past, it might not be so good, so I pitched it as a Guy Ritchie film or a Soderbergh film. Like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. So that’s how we did it. Even the music isn’t done in the operatic style, the Hans Zimmer feel. It more contemporary, and it made it more fresh. It was a challenge.
djm: How do you go about choosing a composer for these superhero films? I’ve enjoyed the scores for these films by Christopher Drake and Fredrik Weidman, and all the other composers as well?
JO: Sometimes it’s scheduled. A lot of times, we talk about who we want, and sometimes we can’t get who we want. We got Robert J. Kral on this one, and he’s worked for us in the past. He’s really, really good. Since this one is more contemporary, we went in a different direction. A little different than the Danny Elfman feel. I’m a huge fan of the light motif. Every character has a theme. Every time you have Batman or another character on screen, you hear their theme.
djm: Did you play the videogames to get yourself immersed in the universe?
KO: Out of all the creative team, I was probably the only one who played all of the videogames. When I found out that this was my next gig, I was excited. I thought I was going to be doing Son of Batman, but when I heard that they were going to do Arkham, I was ecstatic because it was a whole new universe idea, and it sounded exciting and fun.
djm: Batman: Assault on Arkham is darker than the previous Batman animated films, and it almost has a horror feel to it. Talk about going in that direction a little bit.
JO: I’m a huge horror fan. I would watch “R”-rated films that I was way too young to watch, and I think that kind of influenced me a little bit. Now that I’m doing the superhero genre, I try to put all the things that I love in the package. I love Star Wars, I love Star Trek, I love The Shining and The Exorcist. I’ve done a film here that is very psychological, and I tried to hearken back to what I loved as a kid. I tried to balance the videogame feel to the heist movie and a little bit of scary elements at the end. It’s my nod to Sam Raimi and John Carpenter. I’ve been asked how I took on my directing style, and my style comes from studying the greats. You learn something from everyone. I’ve tried to integrate everything.
Many thanks to Jay Oliva for taking the time for this interview.
Batman: Assault on Arkham is set for release on August 12th and sees Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) leading a voice cast that also includes Neal McDonough (Captain America: The First Avenger) as Deadshot, Troy Baker (The Last of Us) as Joker, Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds) as Riddler, CCH Pounder (The Shield) as Amanda Waller, John DiMaggio (Batman: Under the Red Hood) as King Shark, Jennifer Hale (Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox) as Killer Frost, Hynden Walch (The Batman) as Harley Quinn, Greg Ellis (24) as Captain Boomerang, and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) as Black Spider. Jay Oliva (Justice League: War) and Ethan Spaulding (Son of Batman) direct from a script by Heath Corson (Justice League: War). Watch the first trailer here.
david j. moore is a contributing writer to Fangoria, FilmFax, Lunchmeat and VideoScope Magazines. His book WORLD GONE WILD: A SURVIVOR’S GUIDE TO POST-APOCALYPTIC MOVIES was published this year.
Originally published August 4, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
