Matt Reeves Says His Batman Movie Won’t Be Based on Frank Miller’s “Year One”
Last year, Matt Reeves was hired to write and direct The Batman for Warner Bros., but the project hasn’t shown much forward momentum in public. Recent rumors suggested that Reeves would start fresh with a new Batman, replacing Ben Affleck with a younger performer. It’s also been suggested that Reeves will base his script upon Batman: Year One, the classic story by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. However, Reeves directly refuted that rumor when he addressed the press at the Television Critics Association.
Via Slash Film, Reeves said “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.”
“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,” added Reeves. “I went on a deep dive again revisiting all my favorite 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.”
Reeves also indicated that his script for The Batman may have a first draft finished within a few weeks, which may allow the project to begin production early next year. Reeves declined to say definitively whether Affleck would remain involved or if the actor is planning to exit the DC Extended Universe.
“There are ways in which all of this connects to DC, to the DC universe as well,” noted Reeves. “We’re one piece of many pieces so I don’t want to comment on that except to say that I’m focused very specifically on this aspect of the DC world.”
Do you still want to see Affleck star in The Batman? Let us know in the comment section below!