Matt Reeves' The Batman ISN'T Adapting Year One
It's not an origin story, thankfully.
Matt Reeves has given the biggest update yet on the current state of his Batman movie, and confirmed that it WON'T be an origin story.
Rumours surfaced last week that Reeves was going to adapt the Frank Miller storyline Year One, and that he was looking to cast an actor around 15-20 years younger than Ben Affleck for the role, with the movie showing us Batman's origins.
Many questioned the need for another origin story, and especially a new take on Year One, after Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins did both of those things. However, speaking on the Television Critics Association tour, Reeves quashed the rumours, saying (via /Film):
“We’re not doing any particular [comic]. 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.”
It's good to hear Reeves speak so passionately about the project, and to have confirmation that he isn't doing Year One, which makes it more likely it'll be something we haven't seen before. He added:
“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. I went on a deep dive again revisiting all my favourite 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.”
Again, he's making all the right noises here, and an emotional, noir-tinged tale that actually puts the focus on his detective skills should be a welcome change after so many Bat-movies already this century. As for when we might actually get to see it, it sounds like it could be sooner rather than later:
“We are working on getting our draft [in] the next couple weeks. 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 [shooting] in the spring or early summer, something like that."
The next question, then, is whether Affleck will actually be in it, and if not (as seems likely) just who will don the cape and cowl.
Are you excited for Matt Reeves' Batman? Let us know down in the comments.