Closing the Hall of Heroes at the DC FanDome was the most anticipated panel of the day, Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson showing up to talk about The Batman.
Pattinson revealed that they were in the early stages of shooting when COVID shut them down, but that there were a few things that writer/ director Matt Reeves was here to share.
Reeves oozed his Batman fandom, revealing that he has been a fan of Batman since he was a kid. Speaking on making this kind of film, Reeves shared that he fell into making genre films as someone who loves character driven stories and that genre allowed that and Batman was the ultimate vessel.
Though his film is not an origin tale, this Batman movie takes place at the beginning of Batman’s tenure while he is still becoming The Dark Knight. The rogues gallery, including Paul Dano as The Riddler, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, are coming to life in the film. Andy Serkis, who Reeves has worked with on the Apes films, is taking on Alfred Pennyworth and Jeffrey Wright is going to bring something new to James Gordon.
While the film isn’t a collection of origin stories, as the mystery of the film plays out, the characters will come into their own and become versions of the characters we know. Reeves is excited to portray versions of these characters that we haven’t seen before but insists there will be enough familiar elements to evoke the feelings we get from seeing these familiar characters on screen.
His Batman film is going to be a mystery focused detective story centered around the corruption of Gotham City and how that shapes Batman and the rogues around him.
Speaking on the costumes, Reeves mentioned Jacqueline Durran’s work on bringing the looks to life, and Glyn Dillon’s work on the bat suit. They worked with Pattinson to create a practical suit to fight and move in that would get beaten up along the way.
Discussing the connection between this film and the upcoming Gotham City Police Department TV show, Reeves explained how his film focuses on the corruption deep in Gotham City and how the show will expand on these themes. Writer, Terrence Winter (Boardwalk Empire) is creating new characters and takes on familiar ones to further dig into the corruption in the GCPD.
But then they gave us what we’re here for; a quick teaser trailer. The film is only 40% or so finished but there was a lot to tease. In the newest “gritty” take on the bat which gave us a full glimpse at Robert Pattinson (clad in pointy ears with a *sigh* Bat Voice) in the bat suit and some great closeups of some Riddler style envelopes. The vibe felt distinctly “mafia movie,” but that’s probably an extension of my wishful thinking. Though we don’t know which story the film will be borrowing from, or if it will borrow from a story at all, the trailer and Reeves’ comments seem to hint at some Year One and some The Long Halloween (we clocked Reeves mentioning “we go back to year one” when discussing the GCPD TV show). We’ll have to wait until ?0?1 to find out.
