Since the disappointment of 2017’s Justice League, the future of the Caped Crusader had been unclear for some time, until Robert Pattinson was cast in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. The announcement naturally caused controversy right away, since the actor is still most widely known as the glowing, brooding vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise.
Fans like to get caught up in the casting new, but as longtime Batman producer Michael E. Uslan recently noted at Germany’s CCXP Cologne convention (via ComicBook) that shouldn’t be the main concern. In his words:
My position is this: trust the filmmaker and give the filmmaker, and the filmmaker’s vision, the benefit of the doubt. Then wait ’til you see the movie.
The man behind the camera is Matt Reeves, who has helmed Cloverfield, Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. His reported vision is a “noir” look at the Dark Knight, who will use the detective skills he’s known for in the comics and will feature a rogue’s gallery of villains. That’s pretty exciting!
Michael E. Uslan has produced just about every other Batman movie from Michael Keaton to Ben Affleck. He’s seen it all. It always starts with this sort of backlash before fans are treated to the filmmakers’ vision. As he explained of the initial reaction of Keaton’s casting:
The fans were up in arms: ‘How can you have a comedian play Batman? You guys are gonna revert it back to the 1960s show, you’re gonna destroy Batman.’ Until they saw the movie and saw what Tim Burton’s vision was, and how he executed it. And then the fans never wanted anyone else to be Batman.
Before Michael Keaton famously became one of the most beloved versions of Batman, he was Beetlejuice and Mr. Mom. He was everything but Batman, but he was embraced after the film was released. Yes, if Keaton was cast as Bruce Wayne with a lesser filmmaker than Tim Burton it could have been a disaster but he knew what he was doing.
Michael Uslan encourages fans to “judge the hell out of it” once they’ve seen The Batman in 2021, but for now he sees there’s a lot going for it. He recalled the same response happening with Heath Ledger’s Joker casting. Before he became the most celebrated iteration of the villain, people were concerned with Brokeback Mountain’s “gay cowboy” taking on the role.
The Batman producer said it happened once again with Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman, who was considered to be the “girl next door” before she blew away fans with her role as Selina Kyle.
When frequent collaborator to Matt Reeves, composer Michael Giacchino visited San Diego Comic-Con, he was asked about The Batman. He said he’d seen some of what Reeves is working on calling it “pretty darn awesome”. Giacchino also filmed a video at SDCC of the crowd asking him not to screw up the movie.
The Batman won’t hit theaters until June 25, 2021. Think you can reserve your judgement for a couple years? Check out the upcoming 2019 movie releases to keep ya busy!
