First 'The Batman' teaser trailer with Robert Pattinson released
Director Matt Reeves revealed the first trailer for The Batman at Saturday's DC Fandome event.
The video above reveals star Robert Pattison as the Caped Crusader and shows a dark, gritty, and violent new take on the iconic superhero. The footage plays against a haunting version of Nirvana's "Something in the Way."
"It’s about the early days of him being Batman and he’s very far from being perfect," Reeves told fans during the FanDome event. "One of the things that are interesting is learning how to be Batman. It's a criminological experiment. He's trying to figure out what he can do to change this place. He's seeing he's not having any of the effect he wants to have. That's when the murders start to happen ... and it opens up a whole new world of corruption. Without being an origin tale, it ends up touching on his origins. It's a detective story, a mystery, it's got, of course, action, and it's incredibly personal for him. He's kind of a growing legend and [criminals] are afraid of him. He's not a symbol of hope yet. One of the things he has to deal with is how he's perceived ... What was exciting for me was not doing the origin [story] but to meet him in the middle and to see him make mistakes and grow and fail and be heroic in a way that felt very human and very flawed."
Reeves says 1970s classics like Taxi Driver and Chinatown were influences. He also notes he wanted Batman's suit to have a homemade look as Wayne has made it himself during his second year as a vigilante.
The Batman is the latest iteration of the Caped Crusader and stars Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin. Reeves says Dano's Riddler and Kravitz's Catwoman will be very different than any versions we've seen before.
"In a weird way, it is the origin of a lot of Rogue's Gallery," Reeves says. "Selina isn't Catwoman yet. Oswald isn't the Penguin yet — in fact, he doesn't like being called the Penguin."
Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) didn't have the full movie to draw footage from. The production started filming in London in January and then shut down in early March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Reeves says the above trailer is only drawing from 25 percent of the planned footage. The Batman is scheduled to be released on October 1, 2021.
Video provided by Warner Bros.
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