Warner Bros. and The Batman director Matt Reeves have been so unbelievably quiet about the film, we don’t even know who the heck its star will be. Is it Ben Affleck? Or will they go with a younger actor and tell and origin story of the Dark Knight? We just don’t know that much, which is why it’s surprising that Reeves has revealed more information today, in a totally random interview, than we’ve learned in months.
Speaking at the TCAs about his upcoming series, The Passage, Reeves shot down rumors The Batman would be based on the Batman: Year One comic. Basically, this ain’t no origin tale…
“We’re not doing any particular [comic],” Reeves said. “’Year One’ is one of the many comic books that I love. We are definitely not doing ‘Year One.’ It’s just exciting to be focused very specifically on a tale that is defining for him and very personal to him. Obviously we’re not doing an origin tale or anything like that. We’re doing a story that is definitively Batman though and trying to tell a story that’s emotional and yet is really about him being the world’s greatest detective and all the things that for me, since I was a kid, made me love Batman.”
What it sounds like is the film won’t necessarily ignore Batman’s early days, but won’t give us all that crap with Bruce Wayne’s parents getting killed, his growing angry, yadda yadda yadda. We don’t need to see that shit again.
Reeves also said they are working to fast-track the film now, with an eye towards filming next “spring or early summer”.
“We are working on getting our draft [in] the next couple weeks,” Reeves said. “Right now, my head is totally into the script. Right now, I’m going to be leaving here to go back to work on the script.”
And what about Ben Affleck? Is he coming back or what? That was the one thing Reeves decided to keep being mysterious about…
“We’re one piece of many pieces so I don’t want to comment on that except to say that I’m focused very specifically on this aspect of the DC world.”
With so many Batman appearances on the big screen, Reeves went back in order to find a way to bring something new and unique that fans haven’t seen…
“I’ve talked about making it a very point of view noir-driven definitive Batman story in which he is investigating a particular case and that takes us out into the world of Gotham,” Reeves said. “I went on a deep dive again revisiting all my favorite comics. Those all inform by osmosis. There’s no continuation of the Nolan films. It’s very much trying to find a way to do this as something that for me is going to be definitively Batman and new and cool.”
I doubt this is Reeves beginning to turn on the spigot of information, and chances are we won’t hear a thing for another few months. So let’s be happy with what we got. If what Reeves said sticks, we should see The Batman in 2020. Fingers crossed. [via Slashfilm]
