By all accounts, The Batman is going to be unlike any previous live-action take on the iconic DC Comics vigilante we've seen, with more focus placed on the title character's fractured psyche and status as the world's greatest detective. Now, star Robert Pattinson has reiterated just how different Matt Reeves' reboot is going to be by pointing out that the movie sets itself apart right from the opening scene.
While speaking to GQ, the Tenet actor revealed that he watched a rough cut of the film, and it sounds like Reeves' somewhat unconventional influences will be immediately evident.
“I watched a rough cut of the movie by myself. And the first shot is so jarring from any other Batman movie that it’s just kind of a totally different pace,” Pattinson said. “It was what Matt was saying from the first meeting I had with him: ‘I want to do a ’70s noir detective story, like The Conversation.‘ And I kind of assumed that meant the mood board or something, the look of it. But from the first shot, it’s, ‘Oh, this actually is a detective story.’"
Bat-fans should be very pleased to hear that The Dark Knight's detective skills will be highlighted, but Pattinson himself admits that he wasn't actually aware of the hero's less frequently-used moniker.
“I feel like an idiot, because I didn’t even know that Batman was the world’s greatest detective," he added. "I hadn’t heard that in my life before—but it really plays. Just ’cause there’s a lot of stuff where he’s in amongst the cops. Normally, when you see Batman he arrives and beats people up. But he’s having conversations, and there are emotional scenes between them, which I don’t think have been in any of the other movies.”
Pattinson's comments have understandably led to a lot of speculation about this opening shot, but he wasn't giving anything else away! The Batman hits theaters on March 4, so we don't have long to go before seeing it for ourselves.