22 Dec - While the movie itself has yet to be released, director Matt Reeves is elated to share his inspiration behind Robert Pattinson's portrayal of Batman and Colin Farrell as The Penguin. The filmmaker, who spoke about his upcoming film, "The Batman" recently, stated that he decided to use Nirvana's Kurt Cobain as an inspiration on the young Bruce Wayne/Batman's own struggle in the movie. "When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana's 'Something In The Way'. That's when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we've seen before, there's another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse. So, I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant's Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalised version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor."
Stressing that his Batman is not like other Batmans of the past, Reeves said that the movie is very much a point of view-driven, noir tale. "It's more Batman in his detective mode than we've seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He's supposed to be the world's greatest detective, and that's not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been," he said.
As for his supervillain The Penguin, Reeves said that Colin Farrell's characterisation is a mix and match of past famous movie characters - from Tony Soprano to The Godfather's Fredo. "There's a touch of John Cazale as Fredo in The Godfather. He's a mid-level mobster guy and he's got a bit of showmanship to him, but you can see that he wants more and that he's been underestimated. He's ready to make his move," he said. "The Batman" will be hitting theatres on 4 March 2022.