Though Matt Reeves’ The Batman has currently suspended its production (and pushed its release date back to October 2021) it hasn’t stopped the director from speaking about the film and his enthusiasm in making a Batman film.
Speaking with The Daily Beast, Reeves revealed one of his biggest motivations in making The Batman, which he had pitched to Warner Bros., was to make a “Batman movie that could be different” from the previous films.
One of the reasons Reeves was drawn to the world of Gotham City was his own passion for the character after having been a fan for so long, likening his perspective to why he joined the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, of which he directed two instalments.
“The way I loved Apes is the way that I loved Batman, actually,” Reeves said. “The only two franchises that might have been something I would have connected with, amazingly, are the ones I was approached by. That’s been a very special thing. I can’t say that about almost any other franchise, that they would have been the right fit for me. My thing about it, on both of them, is that I had a particular take that, for me, was personal. I feel like if I can’t approach something through a perspective that resonates with me on some personal level, I don’t know where to put the camera, and I don’t know how to talk to the actors. I also felt like there have been some great Batman movies, and I didn’t want to just do a Batman movie. I wanted to do a Batman movie that could be different.”
SEE ALSO: Matt Reeves says The Batman won’t be a direct origin story
Reeves further elaborated on his ‘different’ approach and how not only WB was very open to his idea, but the level of interest it attracted from several actors to join the production:
“I pitched them what I would do, and I said, look, I appreciate that you want me to do a Batman movie, but I don’t want to just do a Batman movie; I want to do a Batman movie that has a chance to be something different, and humanist, and can use the metaphors of the genre. It’s the same reason I did the Apes movies. Those movies were incredibly personal to me, despite the fact that they were what they were. So I made my pitch for what it would be, and to my great pleasure, it turned out that they were totally open to that. I took a tremendously long time working with my partners on writing that script, and they waited. And when I turned it in, they wanted to make it. I’ve been incredibly fortunate that they’ve been so open to it being different. And one of the exciting things about it is that it drew an incredibly interesting and talented number of actors to want to be involved in it. To me, that’s been the dream.”
SEE ALSO: Darren Aronofsky wanted Joaquin Phoenix to play Batman in his Year One adaptation
The Batman sees Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse) donning the cape and cowl as Bruce Wayne/Batman alongside Zoe Kravitz (Big Little Lies) as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Colin Farrell (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Paul Dano (Escape at Dannemora) as Edward Nashton/The Riddler, Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Jim Gordon, Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Alfred Pennyworth, John Turturro (The Big Lebowski) as Carmine Falcone, Alex Ferns (Chernobyl) as Commissioner Pete Savage, Con O’Neill (Ordinary Lies) as Chief Mackenzie Bock, Peter Sarsgaard (The Killing) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson and Jayme Lawson (Farewell Amor) as Bella Real.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
Originally published April 22, 2020. Updated April 21, 2020.
