Originally published July 5, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
As director Matt Reeves continues his press tour for War for the Planet of the Apes, the filmmaker is naturally getting a lot of questions regarding the status of his next big film, The Batman. Reeves recently spoke a few days ago about how he aims to make a noir-driven Batman film with a focus on the character’s emotions, and now he has elaborated further in an interview with Yahoo where he discussed his ambition to create a “deep emotional resonance” in the film.
“What studios are willing to make at the moment is a very, very narrow band of films,” said Reeeves. “What I discovered is that this genre has the potential to be about something more. You can use the metaphors of the genre to talk about a lot…I think that the metaphors of both of the franchises, Batman and Apes, enable you to tell stories that have deep emotional resonance. That’s actually what excites me about it. It’s interesting because I was obsessed with both as a child, and yet there is something potentially very adult about what you can explore under the cover of that fantasy. That is what draws me to it, and that’s what I’m excited about.”
He also praised previous Batman director Christopher Nolan, who directed Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Those films are beloved by many and are considered to have transcended the comic book genre thanks to Nolan’s serious take on the source material. Many even felt The Dark Knight was snubbed a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards simply because it was a comic book film, though Heath Ledger did win a posthumous Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of The Joker.
“What I admire in what Nolan does is that, despite being a filmmaker in an enormous system, his perspective comes through,” stated Reeves. “That to me was very exciting, it’s always exciting when you see a film of his because of that. That’s what I feel like I’ve been trying to do, it’s trying to allow a perspective to come through despite the fact that we’re in this very large studio movie world. I think the other thing that I really admire in what Nolan did was knowing what it is to make a big studio film which often can fall into that sense of committee filmmaking where there’s an anonymity to the point of view of the film.”
Ben Affleck will return as Batman for November’s Justice League before reprising the role for Reeves’ solo movie. War for the Planet of the Apes meanwhile opens in theaters on July 11th.
