Matt Reeves Shot 25 Percent of ‘The Batman’ Before Production Shutdown
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When Warner Bros. shut down production indefinitely on Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” in mid March, many comic book fans were left wondering how much of the film the writer-director managed to shoot. Reeves has revealed the answer in a new interview with Deadline, saying, “We’re not officially editing right now. We’ve actually shot a quarter of the movie and I have been pouring through dailies, looking at takes, and what’s to come.” That only 25 percent of the film is shot and the production could remain on lockdown for another month or two means the tentpole’s summer 2021 release could be in jeopardy.
Reeves said to Deadline it’s “way too early” to talk about what will happen when production kicks off again. The crew was expected to move from London to Liverpool to continue filming before the production shutdown. When asked if “The Batman” might have to film outside of London to keep the cast and crew safe, Reeves responded, “I can’t imagine we wouldn’t finish in London. The situation is fluid.”
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One thing that isn’t changing is the screenplay. As Reeves said, “It took me two years to work on that story, and it’s a very specific mystery noir that’s been really thought-out by me and my partners.” The only thing Reeves predicts will change because of the production shutdown is his approach to filming the 75 percent of the movie he still has left to shoot.
“It happens any time you shoot anything,” Reeves said. “The unexpected — happy accidents and things you didn’t quite expect: That is the lightning in a bottle for something that is alive. I would say that the changes really have to do with ‘Oh, seeing the tone of this’ with these scenes we haven’t done which connect to that part of the storyline. It feels like there might be an opportunity to explore some of that unexpected tone that we found. With these movies, you never have enough prep time, because they’re so complex and so enormous in so many ways. It also gives me a moment to think about the larger sequences that have yet to come up and how I want to realize those.”
Warner Bros. has set a June 25, 2021 release date for “The Batman.”
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