IGN interviewed both the director of the
Gotham pilot, Danny Cannon, and the show's producer and writer Bruno Heller. Over the course of their chat, the duo talk about what it was like coming up with a new take on such a popular, established bunch of characters, as well as the overall tone and look they were aiming for. Cannon admits that it was "daunting" to follow on from Christopher Nolan's
Dark Knight trilogy, but that ultimately they decided to do their own thing and focus more on the changing face of the city itself instead of any specific comic storylines.
"It was daunting at first, because you're following three masterpieces. So I settled with the fact that -- what we talked about when we first pitched this was, "20 years before Batman." A world that's starting to see a corrupt city rotting from the inside. It reminded us of New York in the late '70s and early '80s. That was our first meeting, and we kind of spring-boarded off of that. Luckily, that's uncharted territory. Hopefully in the atmospherics of Gotham we created a romantic, gothic, Dickensian kind of world."
Cannon also suggests that although he's read the comic books,
Gotham won't follow any specific arc from them.
"I read everything, and you reach that point where you have to make it your own. DC were very supportive in that too, because they know when they've done things badly and when they've done things well. So far, what they've done well has just far outweighed, but you have to make these things your own." For more from Cannon and Heller too, click the link below.