Matt Reeves’ The Batman will be the latest cinematic take on DC’s iconic superhero. Following an advanced screening of the upcoming DC Extended Universe film, the writer/director discussed his approach to filming the Dark Knight’s story with members of the press. Reeves detailed his grounded approach on Batman, approaching the hero and villains of the piece with a uniquely powerful view. For Reeves, blending fantastical elements of the universe with real-world stakes is what makes his approach to Batman all the more unique.
A crucial part of The Batman for Reeves was recreating the emotions the original Batman comics gave readers while still exploring a unique story. To accomplish this goal, Reeves leaned into collaboration with his actors. Reflecting on working with Kravitz and her take on Selina Kyle, Reeves noted, “I knew that [Kravitz] thought so deeply about the character. That, for me, was so exciting. There were images literally from the comic books that she was like, ‘God, if we could do this moment.’ There was stuff from Batman: Year One… There were certain things that are some of my favorite moments or lines in the movie, and they’re [hers].”
In the past, most cinematic versions of Batman have explored the early days of the character and his origins. While The Batman focuses on a still relatively young Caped Crusader, Reeves was adamant that he wanted to break free from that trend. “I never wanted to do an origin story,” Reeves shared. “I knew that I wanted to do a story that would lean into the detective side of Batman because we hadn’t seen it where it was really in the forefront of the story. When I started thinking about that, I knew that what was important to me was that Batman has an arc of the story… A lot of times, once he’s already Batman, Bruce no longer has the arc, per se. You might have rogues’ gallery characters who come in, and in a way, they have the grand story, and then Batman is going to battle them in some way. I wanted to do a Batman story where he was already Batman, but he still was in the early days and had to find a way to sort of really evolve. I wanted to do a story about the investigation of this particular mystery that would lead him back to something very personal and would rock him to his core.”
For inspiration, Reeves looked to Batman: The Long Halloween, which played a big role in how Reeves approached the character of Riddler (Paul Dano). In The Batman, Riddler is a terrifying serial killer with a dark view of Gotham City and the elite who run the city. “This idea came to me and I thought, well, we could do a thing where at these crimes, there’s correspondence left for the Batman,” Reeves shared. “The whole idea of being Batman is your power is in being anonymous, so the idea that suddenly, someone is shining a light on you, would be very unsettling to him.” As for how to shine a light on The Riddler, Reeves explained it was born out of his research into real-life killers. “I thought about how the Zodiac Killer, in this horrific way, left all of this sort of disturbing ciphers and communications to the police and to the newspapers,” he said. “I thought, ‘Wow, that actually sounds like a horrifying version of the Riddler.'”
“I thought it would be interesting that as you followed the details of this crime, that it would take [Batman] across the paths of these other characters,” Reeves continued. “I knew right away that I wanted Selena Kyle to be in the story, but I thought, ‘Well, gee, maybe there’s a way that we go searching for this person who was seen with the mayor, and that takes us to the Iceberg Lounge, and that’s a version of the Penguin you’ve never seen, and then that could get us into the Mafia story, and that would get us into Falcone.'”
The production of The Batman has been a long-time coming. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed filming, and, during that time, the United States faced a time of reexamining upheaval the role of law enforcement in society, which, in a unique coincidence, ends up being an integral element of The Batman. Reeves admitted that while they had not changed the story or script to reflect these real-world events, the story they were bringing to life truly reflected the world. “We wrote the script a long time ago,” Reeves said, “and then events happened while we were shooting that were so lined up and kind of buzzed up against things that we were doing. They absolutely made us think of those things.”
“I’m not interested in villains,” he continued. “I’m interested in the way in which we can become villains. How our flaws are what lead us down the wrong path. For me, I think this idea of seeing where corruption comes from and where it’s born, and also seeing the kind of aspirational side which Gordon represents and seeing that struggle, that to me is really what the movie’s about… To me, what cinema is about is putting you in the shoes of someone who you are not, and watching and going through that experience, and seeing them make decisions that you would like to think you would never make, but watch the circumstances that create that and see if you can come to an understanding of how people can do terrible things.”
While reflecting on what led, in his film, Bruce Wayne to become Batman, Reeves shared, “I think the idea of being Batman… Honestly, it’s not altruistic. It’s a desperate attempt to make meaning. That was the thing I think we always talked about — that idea of personalizing everything, and the idea that as Bruce Wayne, he’s totally lost… I kept thinking well, there’s another way to go, which is this idea of thinking of him almost as a member of the Kennedy family, or one of the Royals. In the wake of [his parent’s death], he’s never quite recovered. If you were to see him on the street… He would look very pale, kind of bruised up, and you’d think this guy’s a drug addict. What is his problem? You’d think he was a real screw-up, and I guess, in a certain way, maybe he is. What it is is that that drug that he’s addicted to is escaping himself and doing this [superhero] thing. It’s this thing of trying to make meaning. We talked a lot about that.”
To see Reeves’ take on the Dark Knight, check out The Batman, coming to theaters Mar. 4
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