The Batman Director Says Kurt Cobain Inspired Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader
News of his casting received some backlash at first, but it looks like Robert Pattinson is going to make a hell of a Batman. After months without any significant news about the upcoming film, we finally have some talk from the ol' Arkham City water cooler for you. In a new interview with Empire, Matt Reeves—director of The Batman—revealed the source of the especially gloomy, borderline emo vibe of Pattinson's Bruce Wayne: Kurt Cobain.
“When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way,'” Reeves said. “That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse... So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s ‘Last Days,’ and the idea of this fictionalized version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.”
Sounds like just the merry pick-me-up we all need right now. In all seriousness, however, it's refreshing to see the director of a superhero film looking somewhere outside of comic books for inspiration. Now, here's everything we know so far about the new Batman trilogy, including its cast and plot rumors, plus looks at the Cape Crusader's new suit, motorcycle, and Batmobile.
Is there a trailer?
The new trailer for The Batman debuted in October, and it made good on all of the darkness that was teased over the past couple of years via stills and set leaks. The preview focuses on the battle between Pattinson's Batman, and well, all of Arkham City. (Also: Pattinson's Batman voice? Not bad!) It also highlights his beef with The Riddler, which looks like a letter-swapping back and forth that rings as creepily as you'd expect. We also get new looks at Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon, and even a beefy Colin Ferrell as the Penguin. Oh, and Pattinson pummels a bunch of goons. Never gets old.
Before the full trailer, there were a lot of teases from set photos and Reeves himself. Well over a year ago, the director first shared a first glimpse of what Pattinson will look like in the upcoming role. The dark and mysterious teaser clip featured Pattinson in his new Batsuit, featuring a new Batman symbol along with part of Pattinson's cowl. In short, the clip was equal parts dark, sad, and sexy, which is pretty on brand for Pattinson (and Batman).
Reeves, at that time, also confirmed that the film's cinematographer is Greig Fraser, who shot the clip, while the music played during the footage is from the film's composer, Michael Giacchino (of Lost and Pixar fame).
Also last year, we also got our first look at Pattinson's Batcycle, as photos emerged from the set of the movie in Glasgow, Scotland. Though Pattinson isn't in the photos, a man who appears to be his stunt double is seen mounting Batman's two-wheeled whip. The photos also gave us a closer look at the Batsuit, which looks armored as hell. It's hard to tell what scene was being filmed, but if the woman in the second photo isn't a member of the crew, her position on a motorcycle might imply there's a chase to be seen.
In early March 2020, we got our first look at a different, much more well-known mode of transportation for the Caped Crusader: The Batmobile. And these pictures are the real deal, not from some paparazzo—Reeves posted three different looks at Batman's famous whip to his Twitter account.
Finally, it looks like we've gotten away from the looks of Christian Bale and Ben Affleck's Batmobiles, which were closer to armored tanks than cars. Pattinson's ride, surprisingly, looks like a souped up version of Adam West's whip—if you put the top on the convertible, and built a mean-looking engine into it.
Where will it fall on the Adam West to Christopher Nolan grit scale?
Medium gritty? Back when we heard about the Affleck departure, Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter what his game-plan was looking like: "It's very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale," he said. "It's told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it's going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional. It’s more Batman in his detective mode that we’ve seen in the films."
It’s a relief that we’re getting a detective noir take on the hero, considering Zack Snyder’s Batman (Reeves’s trilogy has no connection to that corner of the DCEU, by the way) had Bruce Wayne in a Hurt Locker suit beating on those weird desert dragons.
Pattinson seems on board with the more-brains-than-brawn take, too. "He’s a complicated character… His morality is a little bit off,” Pattinson told The New York Times of Bruce Wayne. “He's not the golden boy, unlike almost every other comic-book character. There is a simplicity to his worldview, but where it sits is strange, which allows you to have more scope with the character."
He also told the Times, “Batman’s not a hero… He’s a complicated character. I don’t think I could ever play a real hero—there’s always got to be something a little bit wrong. I think it’s because one of my eyes is smaller than the other one.”
Farrell described Reeves' script as "beautiful, dark, moving," and "really gorgeous," while Peter Sarsgaard, who will play Gil Colso, compared the film's tone to that of the alt-rock band The Pixies, saying that the film will be "raw" and "not sanitized." Pattinson, meanwhile, promises a Batman "just as crazy and perverse" as the characters he's become known for playing in indie films.
Any chance of Battinson meeting up with Joaquin Phoenix's Joker?
If you’re going by Joker director Todd Phillips’s word, then probably not. When the Los Angeles Times asked him if Joaquin’s Joker would square off against any version of Batman, he said, “We would never do that. No, no.”
And when presented with the theory that Arthur Fleck inspired the version of the Joker who would go on to fight Batman, Phillips left things a little more open-ended. “Maybe Joaquin’s character inspired the Joker,” he said. “You don’t really know. His last line in the movie is. ‘You wouldn’t get it.’ There’s a lot going on in there that’s interesting.”
Plus, now with rumors of Barry Keoghan's potential Jokering, we're much more likely to see a different actor than Phoenix play the villain opposite Pattinson.
When will it be released?
Like every recent film, production here has not been spared from Covid-19-related delays. It disbanded the first time due to the arrival of the pandemic, and just days after production resumed, Warner Bros. announced that The Batman had once again halted production because a crew member had tested positive for Covid-19. Shortly after that announcement, Vanity Fair reported that Pattinson was the individual who tested positive for the virus. Warner Bros. did not confirm these reports. The day after that news, The Daily Mail broke the story that The Batman began production once again, without Robert Pattinson, trying to get as much non-Pattinson scenes shot as possible while the star quarantines at home.
All that said, the film is currently slated to hit theaters on March 4, 2022.
From: Esquire US
