The pre-production drama swirling around ‘The Batman’ has been going on ever since the debut of ‘Batman V. Superman’. After that film failed to land critically ‘The Batman’ solo film, that at the time was supposed to be directed by Oscar winner Ben Affleck himself, was quickly positioned as the new saviour of the DCEU. In the months since this proclamation, the film has seen nearly everything that can go wrong, go wrong. The film lost its director, had multiple rewrites, and even for a while seemed like it may lose Ben Affleck entirely. Once the film finally landed it’s director in Matt Reeves (after lots of back and forth) the film has started to trend in the right direction. Reeve’s most recent film ‘War for the Planet of the Apes‘ is garnering rave reviews. With many critics even saying it is the best trilogy of films since ironically Christopher Nolans ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy. This past week Reeve’s sat down with Fandango while promoting apes to discuss the upcoming ‘The Batman’ film. The following quotes are phrased in the context of a conversation about the Apes films and are available in their entirety via the link above.
“I have ideas about an arc, but really, the important thing is just to start… you have to start with one,” Reeves said. “You know, you have to start with a story that begins something. And I would be lying if I could tell you that the arcs of Apes was already planned out, because it simply wasn’t; it’s one of those things where that character was so potent, and the possibility was embedded from the beginning, but exactly how you’ve got from A to Z is not something that existed.” Reeves continued by stating
Reeves continued on by stating,
“And so, there are these broad ideas, I think, that sort of came to mind as Rise was created, of how that story could be told, but they weren’t explicitly laid-out. And when Mark and I began Dawn, we knew what our goals were, but we didn’t know how we were gonna get there, and I would say that that more relates to the way that I see a Batman story, is a kind of ambition for a series of stories, but really the most important thing is gonna be to tell a vital first story.”
Reeve’s recently elaborated on what he views are the similarities between the two main characters with Variety,
“What I see in Batman that I find so interesting is that, in a way, he reminds me of Caesar, in that he is a character with a really troubled past who is grappling within himself to try to do the right thing in a really imperfect world, in a corrupt world,” he said. “That provides an opportunity, again, if you want to take that point-of-view storytelling — and I can imagine the story as being like a noir. The originals from the golden age were detective stories. I think if you can marry that with the personal, there’s a chance to do something very exciting.”
When you add these quotes together Reeves seems to be fully grasping what the fans love about The Batman character and if his recent work is any sign we could be truly in store for a treat when ‘The Batman’ is released in 2019. Let’s just hope he can find a way to include Andy Serkis in some way.
