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by Arthur Cios

(© Warner Bros.)

We will avoid the usual banality of cinema articles explaining that such and such a film is one of the most anticipated of the year, especially to evoke a Batman feature film. Basically, by the nature of the character, of the Hollywood industry, of the story of the bat man on the big screen, the project excites young and old alike - probably rather the big ones, unlike to the MCU.

Add to that a desire to make a film alone, as was the case with Todd Phillips, with a cast bigger than a Batmobile (Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, Barry Keoghan … do you want more?), and a respected image maker on the other side of the Atlantic (Matt Reeves, to whom we owe the first Cloverfield of the name, and the last two Planet of the Apes), and you understand our impatience.

While the film will be in French theaters on March 2, we had the chance to speak with one of its producers, Dylan Clark. And here are the five things we learned.

Difficult to conceive that we can still want to lay yet another Batman film. Knowing that we have had, in less than thirty years, already at least eight with five different actors in the leading role. So obviously, we would like to know where the idea came from, the desire to tackle it. Dylan Clark recounts the origin of the project as follows:

A legitimate question. And if Dylan Clark guarantees that they did not try to differentiate themselves from Nolan, because "when we write, we do not think of what has already been done but of what we want to do", the fact is that the British filmmaker has permanently changed the way we had to design super-heroic films. It seems logical for a powerless character to have a realistic environment. But how not to make a Batman Begins bis?

The new The Riddler, with a costume of assumed sobriety (especially compared to the Jim Carrey version). (© Warner Bros.)

This is perhaps the main difference: we will have a real detective Batman, as in the comics, and as few filmmakers have really been able to approach it.

When Clark is asked if the success of The Joker, or at least the launch of such a project and its reception by the press and fans as soon as the film was announced, is not at the origin of the project, the bonhomme sends us back to the ropes. Logic, you will say, the film was launched well in advance. But without a specific date, it is impossible to understand how it came about. Clark explains more precisely – and justifies the absence of the villain in the project, which some hoped to cross:

It is true that at least there is less pressure. Because we have already had three Jokers on the big screen, all cults. Whereas we had only one Riddler, ridiculously kitsch (Jim Carrey in Batman Forever). Still, in terms of iconic villain, we will have a third Catwoman (the two previous ones, Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway, both being successful), and a new villain after the incredible version of Danny DeVito at Tim Burton. The bar is high nonetheless.

Inevitably, it is hard to imagine filmmakers tackling the cultural monster that is Batman without going to draw on the basic material, namely comics. Even if we suspected the answer a little, we wanted to be clear about it and ask the person concerned which books had the most influence on the writing of the feature film, both for the atmosphere and for the plot. Clark advances:

Year One is one of the most iconic titles in Batman history. Signed Miller (therefore necessarily with debatable morals and substance), he revived business and sales at DC. It is even said that Aronofsky wanted to adapt it, but that the project fell through. If it was quoted, worn (in Begins in the first place, but also in Timm's animated film, derived from his cult animated series, Batman against the masked ghost), it was never really adapted properly. speak. But from what Matt Reeves says, it could be that this film is the one that comes closest to Miller's texts.

(© Urban Comics/DC Comics)

Note, for the more curious, that Darwyn Cooke's books from the 2000s have also been cited elsewhere, such as Batman: Ego or Catwoman – The Last Hold-up. We can also dive into the sequel to The Long Halloween, Bitter Victory, and probably the other part of the Loeb and Sale duo, Catwoman in Rome. In short, it makes you read.

There are three scenarios for the design of a film: either the production imposes a person to play the main role without the director having much say, or there is a real casting process, or the person who spawned the story has a set of specific actors and actresses in mind. It would seem, according to the words of this dear Clark, that for this new Batman, we are in the latter case.

"We went to people, and we got who we wanted," he says with some pride. Some roles seemed obvious, like Zoë Kravitz to play Catwoman, who "came to our meeting with short hair and a specific look. It's simple: it looked like she came out of a Frank comics Miller. She already looked a lot like Selena Kyle."

For the choice of the protagonist, we imagine that it was more complicated. To hear Dylan Clark, not so much:

(© Warner Bros.)

Seeing Pattinson accept a role like this, he who has shunned franchises like the plague since his experience as a glowing-as-a-disco-ball vampire, is surprising. He assures us in an interview: it's the cracra side of the character and the experimental aspect of the approach that appeals to him. And then, like any kid, he must have had the secret wish to embody Bruce Wayne one day. Clark says he saw Pattinson become Batman in a split second:

Anyone who saw the first trailer could feel the grungy atmosphere that emanated from the film. Which is rare enough in a modern blockbuster, enough to be noted at the very least. And we don't just say that because there is Nirvana's "Something in the Way" in the background (even if the director readily admits that he listened to this song a lot while writing the screenplay). Just look at Bruce Wayne's face, the runny makeup, the dirty hair… far from the Playboy we've had so far. Dylan Clark confirms:

A few weeks ago, Reeves said in the columns of Empire that thinking so much about Cobain allowed him to give life to a "Dark Knight who went through a great tragedy and became a recluse", far from the flashes and the bling-bling that we know him.

Moreover, in this same first teaser, we find a really striking scene. A fight without editing, without music, just raw blows. Speaking of the film's grungy, dark vibe, we asked Clark if there would be any similar moments in the film. He gives us an answer in the affirmative, before concluding:

The tone is set, indeed.

Batman will hit theaters on March 2.