Don’t let the near three-hour running time scare you off, because Warner Bros’ The Batman is gripping and primitive. Director, producer and co-scribe Matt Reeves joins us on Hero Nation today to talk about his direction for a Dark Knight detective story, laced with horror, like we’ve near seen before in the history of the franchise.
You can listen to our conversation below:
Before any Batman sequel happens, Reeves says there’s an HBO Max series centering on Colin Farrell’s Penguin which “connects from where we’re leaving the story here.”
Reeves originally conceived a HBO Max Batman spinoff series about a corrupt cop, something like a Prince of the City; a blue who’s battling for his soul. The cop is then reawakened by a rising Gotham City vigilante in a story set in the events before Reeves’ Dark Knight movie. However, the filmmaker was encouraged to embrace the more popular DC characters from the franchise, given that his concept was based on an entirely original character.
“There’s a great Penguin story that’s an American Dream-Scarface story of a guy who is underestimated; how nobody thinks he’s capable of doing anything, who believes in himself with a visceral violence,” Reeves tells Hero Nation, while referencing The Long Good Friday as inspiration.
Currently, the Penguin series is in the pilot stage with a script by Lauren LeFranc and there’s “certainly a possibility” that characters from the movie will weave into the series, and that the series itself will spill into the next Batman movie. A first season is currently being mapped.
The Batman is already in theaters after two days of previews and is expected to make north of $115 million domestic this weekend, and $225 million-plus worldwide.
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