Knightfall supervising producer Rick Morales opens up about adapting such a massive Batman story onto film, as well as what to expect in the next installments.
Michael Mando as Bane
One of the standout performances in the recently-released animated movie was Michael Mando as Bane. It seems that Mando was at the top of the production team’s list of actors to portray the villain.
Well, I mean, you know, I think if I remember correctly, the way it went down is our voice director, Wes Gleason, had blurted his name out at a casting meeting that we were having, and we were sort of talking preliminarily about, you know, who might be right for these roles. He said Michael Mando. And I was originally like, that’s curious. What an interesting suggestion. But then I could kind of see it, you know, I could see it in my head. And he just had such an intensity that it felt like, you know, I think this could work. And so it became apparent when we had our first recording session.
He came in and he just really knew the character. He had given it deep thought, you know, and consideration. And he came in with an idea of knowing what he wanted to do, keeping him sort of, you know, for the big villain of the film, sensitive but also really scary. And the thing I liked about working with Michael in particular was he was so invested in it. He just pushed himself, and he gave it his all. And he really thought about, like, what’s this character saying here? What am I trying to say? And he had good ideas, and it was sort of like, you know, we got to collaborate in a way that maybe doesn’t always happen, but I really appreciated it, and I think it shows.
Morales also discussed adapting that 90’s aesthetic to the movie. Every character in the flick was based on their 90’s comics design, especially Batman. Longtime fans could tell that the Dark Knight took a lot of visual cues from 90’s Batman artist Kelley Jones.
Rick Morales on the 90’s Visual Influences of ‘Knightfall’
However for Morales, it wasn’t an artistic stretch as much as it was returning to his original artistic influences.
… as far as leaning into the sort of 90s aesthetic and all of that, like, I think that wasn’t a big problem for me. That’s my, I think, natural inclination, you know, because of when I was born and what I grew up with and my artistic influences and stuff. Like, all that stuff is ingrained in me. You know, I grew up a fan of Kelley Jones and, you know, artists of that time period, Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane and, you know, all that stuff like that; that’s what I came up with. So being able to do a film that leaned into that was like, you know, I don’t want to say it was easy, but it kind of was. You know, I didn’t have to think too much about it. I knew how I wanted to approach it. And I have artists here working with me that are capable of it
And, you know, I do think there were probably times when some of the design team was like, what are you doing here? And I was kind of like, you know, just trust me, trust me, this is going to work. It’s, you know, we’re pushing into this, like, stylistic, you know, 90s feel. And we were pulling from other movies too. You know, like, I’ve talked about, you know, the other influences outside of comic books, which were like The Crow and City of Lost Children and, you know, those types of films that had, like, a really big style to them. And that’s kind of my approach to this: to just embrace it, lean into it, you know, let everybody have muscles and be extreme and crazy in their proportions and try to do sort of a faithful adaptation of Kelley Jones’s work.
Where Does ‘Knightfall’ Go Next?
As for what to expect in the next two films in the trilogy, Morales dropped some teases. The producer can confirm that both Jean Paul Valley and Nightwing will play bigger roles. Additionally, fans will get to see a fun Nightwing and Tim Drake relationship brewing.
I think I hope, if you’re a fan of Jean Paul Valley, that you’ll be very happy with the next couple of films. And also, I think one of the things that I’m most excited for is to bring Nightwing into it in a real way. And, you know, one of the things that I always love, because I don’t think I have anything shy about saying that, you know, one of my favourite characters in comic books ever is Tim Drake’s Robin, especially this particular period. Tim Drake. And I just love their relationship, you know, that sort of older brother, younger brother sort of relationship that they have. So I think that’s something we’ll get into, and I’m really excited about.
To read the full interview, as well as Morales’ thoughts on Anson Mount’s Batman, click the link here.
Batman: Knightfall: Part 1: Knightfall is now available on digital and DVD and Blu-Ray.
Source: Comicbookmovie.com
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