When Warner Brothers was circiling Matt Reeves for
The Batman it was a bit of an up and down process, with talks moving rapidly, then seeming to cool down just as quickly. Then, out of nowhere, Reeves signed on the dotted line, and he will be the newest director to tell The Dark Knight's story.
While chatting with
Variety, Reeves discussed what it's like to work with Warner Brothers on the project. More specifically, he spoke to their excitment and his relationship with them.
"Let’s put it this way. I’ve never worked with them, but my experience with them so far has been really good. As I describe what I want to do, they seem really excited. So its the beginning of a journey. When I came in to do Apes, I had no idea, I had never made a studio film like that before. Even Cloverfield, though it came out through Paramount, was not really a studio film. Bad Robot had final cut so it was like making an indie, and so they were just really supportive and released the movie so it wasn’t really a studio film. These two movies, I’ve been able to make exactly the movie I wanted to make. Whatever flaws are in there are in some way we weren’t able to achieve something, I wasn’t able to pull something off, we didn’t have enough time, or whatever it is. It is also not something where I look back and go, ‘That damn studio compromise.’ So I think there’s a way in which you can work with a studio. I’ve never worked with any studio other than Fox, so its going to be an exploration for me. I’m excited to say that thus far they seem really excited about it and I suppose if we should ever come to an impasse then we’d have to resolve it one way or another. I’m very hopeful and positive about it."
He also elaborated on some previous statements about the film's style and the parralles between Ceaser from War For The Planet Of The Apes and Batman.
“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. 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.”
Between Reeves doing press for War For The Planet Of The Apes and Comic-Con coming up, Batman news is sure to be popping up a lot over the next few weks. Make sure to check out the Batman page of the CBM Index for the latest.