The Batman Update: Script Almost Ready, Will be Noir-Driven – /Film
It's good to know the movie will not be based on Year One. Though it's a great origin, it's time to get away from Batman origin stories for at least another two decades.
Here are some quotes and updates from Matt Reeves via Slashfilm.
About the script and filming:
“We are working on getting our draft [in] the next couple weeks,” Reeves said. “Right now, my head is totally into the script. Right now, I’m going to be leaving here to go back to work on the script.”
“What we’ve talked about is hopefully in the spring or early summer, something like that.”
Regarding Ben Affleck:
"Reeves said he was still speaking with Affleck, but was coy about who might play the caped crusader in the film.
“There are ways in which all of this connects to DC, to the DC universe as well,” Reeves said. “We’re one piece of many pieces so I don’t want to comment on that except to say that I’m focused very specifically on this aspect of the DC world.”
After the connected movies from Man of Steel through Justice League, DC announced plans to focus on more individual movies. That also gives Affleck an out, but Reeves’ suggestion that there’s a way to have Affleck involved, without ruling out recasting a younger Batman, is intriguing.
The most obvious idea could be that the Bruce Wayne we know as Ben Affleck could bookend the movie, recalling this case from his younger days. Two Batmen for the price of one!
Reeves added that the shift in direction for DC films did not alter his plans for The Batman.
“From the beginning, what I had always spoken about with Warner Brothers and what I was excited about was being in the Batuniverse and really doing something within that sphere,” Reeves said. “That was always what it was going to be so in that way it hasn’t changed a lot since I first met with them. It’s very much the same thrust if that makes sense. A lot of things have happened since then but the movie, and why I’m excited about it, is it continues to be the same inspirations and excitement of what we talked about in the beginning.” "
Not Year One:
“We’re not doing any particular [comic],” Reeves said. “Year One is one of the many comic books that I love. We are definitely not doing Year One. It’s just exciting to be focused very specifically on a tale that is defining for him and very personal to him. Obviously we’re not doing an origin tale or anything like that. We’re doing a story that is definitively Batman though and trying to tell a story that’s emotional and yet is really about him being the world’s greatest detective and all the things that for me, since I was a kid, made me love Batman.”
“I’ve talked about making it a very point of view noir-driven definitive Batman story in which he is investigating a particular case and that takes us out into the world of Gotham,” Reeves said. “I went on a deep dive again revisiting all my favorite comics. Those all inform by osmosis. There’s no continuation of the Nolan films. It’s very much trying to find a way to do this as something that for me is going to be definitively Batman and new and cool.”
