Although news has been pretty quiet lately when it comes to the Matt Reeves directed solo Batman film, the writer and director did provide fans with an update at the Television Critics Association summer press tour earlier this week.
Reeves said that he is still working on the script and that it should be finished in about two weeks. In fact, he was going from the Television Critics Association directly home to California to continue working on it. With a script so close to completion, Reeves is hopeful for a 2019 start to filming.
“What we’ve talked about is hopefully in the spring or early summer, something like that.”
Last year, rumors started swirling that The Batman, or whatever Reeves’ film ends up being called, was not going to be a part of the DC on Film Universe (please, give us a real name already WB) and that it was going to be it’s own separate story, much like Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. Reeves quickly shot down that rumor, but little has been said since.
Reeves reiterated that it is still part of the larger DC on Film world.
“There are ways in which all of this connects to DC, to the DC Universe as well. 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.”
This echoes what he said last year about it being a part of the larger DC Universe, but his story is specifically about Batman and nothing else going on with other DC characters. Reeves continues:
“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. 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.”
When it came to Ben Affleck’s involvement, Reeves said that he is still discussing the project with him, but once again no definitive answer was made one way or the other.
The most plausible direction Reeves’ film seems to be going in is a prequel story of Batman’s adventures when he was younger, pre-Man of Steel. This way, it can still technically exist in the same world as the other films, but there’s no need to mention them since they haven’t happened yet and can almost treat it as a soft-reboot of the character on film.
It also gets them around Affleck, who honestly doesn’t seem too interested in portraying the character anymore after two critically panned films (three if you include his Suicide Squad cameo). They can cast a younger actor to go with the younger Batman and Affleck can receive a producer credit for staying involved with the project in some sort of consulting way.
No matter what the film ends up being called, no matter what the story ends up being, and no matter who portrays the Dark Knight, it’s exciting news to hear that things are starting to come together.
While I want Matt Reeves to tell the Batman story he wants to tell, personally, I’m hoping we get the story of how Robin died. This fits the criteria of it being a personal story to Batman, while also connecting it to the DC Universe at large. Zack Snyder recently revealed the dead Robin was meant to be Dick Grayson, but with it never explicitly mentioned anywhere on film, Reeves would have the freedom to honor that or make it Jason Todd as it was in the comics.
What do you think? What sort of Batman story are you hoping for out of Matt Reeves?