Matt Reeves To Direct The Upcoming Batman Solo - Part 2

[C Prometheus]

For some reason I feel like penguin might not be the main threat, even though I think he'll be there. And what about those rumors that Jack Huston was in contention for Harvey's Dent way back when?

I think Huston as Dent was merely speculation on MFR's part. It's been awhile since I read those reports. He was rumored to be a candidate to replace Affleck as Batman back when Reeves was seemingly gearing up to team with Jake Gyllenhaal and keep going with the long-time veteran Batman angle.

And yeah, I don't think most fans who've been paying attention to the rumors think Penguin will be the main baddie.

 

[Greenlite]

So where did this Bane rumor come from?

 

[Gothamsknight]

So where did this Bane rumor come from?

Some YouTuber who claimed he knew about Pattinsons casting back in January. We shall see if it's true, I guess.

 

[Web-Head]

For some reason I feel like penguin might not be the main threat, even though I think he'll be there. And what about those rumors that Jack Huston was in contention for Harvey's Dent way back when?

I think it's sounding like Riddler will be the main threat, which makes sense with Reeves wanting to dive into the detective side of Batman more

 

[C Prometheus]

Some YouTuber who claimed he knew about Pattinsons casting back in January. We shall see if it's true, I guess.

Well, no, to be fair to the guy, he is a bit more than just "some YouTuber." Ryan Unicomb works in the film industry and has ties to Warner Bros, having worked on Kong: Skull Island and was making a documentary at some point in the past about George Miller's Justice League: Mortal. Supposedly he got access to concept art for the film that had never been made public before or something?

Whether this means his info is legit remains to be seen, but there is some reason to at least consider his info when talking about the film.

 

[Marvel united]

Well, no, to be fair to the guy, he is a bit more than just "some YouTuber." Ryan Unicomb works in the film industry and has ties to Warner Bros, having worked on Kong: Skull Island and was making a documentary at some point in the past about George Miller's Justice League: Mortal. Supposedly he got access to concept art for the film that had never been made public before or something?

Whether this means his info is legit remains to be seen, but there is some reason to at least consider his info when talking about the film.

Interesting.

 

[THE WOLF]

Please no Bane

 

[I Am The Knight]

Why not? Ben from TDKR was fun but he was a loose adaptation of the character. I want to see Reeves' Bane.

 

[Lasirius]

To be fair, Bane is still a bit of a question mark. It's just one source that's mentioned him. We've heard about Catwoman from a couple of other places too though, so she's probably in the film.

That said, I agree with you. It's great to have certain characters back already. Frankly I've wanted a Catwoman that would return repeatedly on the big screen and develop over time alongside Batman.

I was gutted not to see her return in Batman Forever but understand given the significant changes they planned to that movie. Sad to see Pfeiffer's Catwoman will only live on in one movie.

 

[godisawesome]

I think it's sounding like Riddler will be the main threat, which makes sense with Reeves wanting to dive into the detective side of Batman more

One report specifically cited Penguin as the “primary antagonist” to Catwoman’s “secondary anatagonist,” though that was before Riddler got announced.

Then there’s the Unicomb report saying that most of the villains are suspects in a mystery, which might mean a perp with a more humble reputation beneath Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, etc. Or it could be a conspiracy, or maybe a gun-for-here situation, or even just a “random encounter” situation.

Here’s some more fleshed out speculative possibilities, just dealing with the three supported bad guys:

- Penguin as the overarching main villain and Batman’s target, acting as the employer and boss for Riddler (as a consulting criminal planning things out for Penguin) and hiring Catwoman for a specific job (hired gun specialist). Batman suspects that it’s Penguin who committed whatever crime he needs to solve, but needs to get solid evidence that’s not just Riddler’s usual schtick or trying to arrest Catwoman, who’s as much ally as enemy to him.
- Penguin thinks he’s the main villain, but is in fact being played by Riddler, who’s distracted by a vendetta against Catwoman for stealing from him... at Riddler’s instigation, to try and keep Batman busy. But at some point, Penguin realizes he’s been played, and it becomes a three-way/four-way fight.
- Penguin and Riddler start the film at war with each other, instigated by some crime committed by Catwoman, who is in fact attempting to play those two rogues and Batman against each other so she can “steal” the position of the big bad boss of Gotham with the Calabrese family, since she wants to control crime.
- All three are simply suspects encountered and interrogated by Batman for a murder. Catwoman is the fully ambiguous femme fatale and ex that Batman doesn’t know if he can trust, Penguin is the guy he pressures to flush out the perp or else he’ll take down the Iceberg Lounge no matter how long it takes, and Riddler? Riddler knows who the killer is, but as an arrogant knowledge broker, only gives Batman clues while taunting him. Other guys like Bane could be integrated as other suspects (though with Bane it would be more the tense stalemate situation like in No Man’s Land.)

Something creative has to happen with this many villains.

Also, if anyone wants to hear some fun speculation about the kind of things my buddy and I think would be cool to see in the new movie (type of Bruce portrayed by Pattinson, personality and relationship-to-Batman Catwoman, Penguin’s disfigurements, how we’d want to see the Riddler, etc.), we did a podcast : ‎FranchiseWars: Matt Reeves’s The Batman on Apple Podcasts

 

[Frodo]

I was gutted not to see her return in Batman Forever but understand given the significant changes they planned to that movie. Sad to see Pfeiffer's Catwoman will only live on in one movie.

Ironically, Catwoman was to be featured in some version of Batman 3 along with Riddler and Two Face. I think it may have been in that period Burton still had ideas and was basically still director , with Keaton presumed to return. So this was probably around 1993 or even 1994, i.e. pre-Schumacer.

Instead, they decided to give Catwoman her own spin off film with Pfeiffer reprising her role. That idea was still kicking around even when Schumacer came on to BF. As the 90s went on, Pfeiffer was eventually no longer attached to the role, and it eventually became Halle Berry's infamous Catwoman film.

 

[Lasirius]

Yeah, I remember reading about this a few years back. What a mess that all turned out to be.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Well, no, to be fair to the guy, he is a bit more than just "some YouTuber." Ryan Unicomb works in the film industry and has ties to Warner Bros, having worked on Kong: Skull Island and was making a documentary at some point in the past about George Miller's Justice League: Mortal. Supposedly he got access to concept art for the film that had never been made public before or something?

Whether this means his info is legit remains to be seen, but there is some reason to at least consider his info when talking about the film.

Ahh well that I did not know haha. That makes me believe even more that it's probably true


Honest, I love the list of villains. I think it's always great to see more Catwoman haha. Her relationship with Batman is something that I could never get tired of.

 

[C Prometheus]

Ahh well that I did not know haha. That makes me believe even more that it's probably true

Honest, I love the list of villains. I think it's always great to see more Catwoman haha. Her relationship with Batman is something that I could never get tired of.

I mean, I'm still somewhere in the gray area with the rumor myself. It seems like he's got serious ties to WB, but he's not exactly a huge name in the film world either. I don't think he's making it up out of nowhere though and it's not at all unreasonable that these names have been floating around here and there in the film community as "unwritten castings" that Reeves has been interested in or met with while working on the script and prepping for the more thorough casting of Batman.

However I really hope this rumor largely winds up being true because I really dig the cast. And yeah, Catwoman is always great to have around.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

I admittedly haven't gone through through this entire thread, so someone has probably brought this up; but who thinks Reeves might use a common trope of both Batman comics and film noir and have Batman do a voice over narration in the movie?

Well; one of the rumors a few months ago was that Reeves was heavily influenced by a comic book story called Batman: Ego, so if that’s true then I’d say there’s a good chance of some narration, as Batman narrates in that one a bit...iirc he sort of does a brief description of several villains in the beginning, which I suspect we will get in this movie. Saves time and money on origin filming.

 

[FunkMiller]

Well; one of the rumors a few months ago was that Reeves was heavily influenced by a comic book story called Batman: Ego, so if that’s true then I’d say there’s a good chance of some narration, as Batman narrates in that one a bit...iirc he sort of does a brief description of several villains in the beginning, which I suspect we will get in this movie. Saves time and money on origin filming.

I’d be very interested in a narration. Something that’s never been done before. Getting inside his head would be terrific.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Well; one of the rumors a few months ago was that Reeves was heavily influenced by a comic book story called Batman: Ego, so if that’s true then I’d say there’s a good chance of some narration, as Batman narrates in that one a bit...iirc he sort of does a brief description of several villains in the beginning, which I suspect we will get in this movie. Saves time and money on origin filming.

It's such a brilliant story and I'm happy Reeves is looking at that for inspiration. Definitely gives an idea as to what we will see on screen. I also believe darwyne cooks art will serve as inspiration for the look too!

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

It's such a brilliant story and I'm happy Reeves is looking at that for inspiration. Definitely gives an idea as to what we will see on screen. I also believe darwyne cooks art will serve as inspiration for the look too!

You’re actually the guy that introduced me to that comic, lol.

I don’t remember if I ever said thanks, but if not then; “ Thanks!”

 

[Gothamsknight]

You’re actually the guy that introduced me to that comic, lol.

I don’t remember if I ever said thanks, but if not then; “ Thanks!”

you're very welcome my friend

 

[Random490]

For some reason I feel like penguin might not be the main threat, even though I think he'll be there. And what about those rumors that Jack Huston was in contention for Harvey's Dent way back when?

I feel the same. I think Penguin works best as a third party, someone who prefers to profit from a situation. He'd rather play other crime lords against each other than try to be the top dog of the city.

For the plot, I think I would like some combination of Arkham Origins and Batman Eternal. I love how the Arkham Games each takes place over the course of one night and features and overall mystery while allowing plenty of opportunities for different set pieces. Arkham Asylum is too narrow of a setting, while Arkham Knight is too grand a concept for a first film. But the idea of a crime boss offering a one night only bounty on Batman with the idea of wearing him down so much that he's pushed to his physical and mental limits in a variety of ways, is just a very interesting idea. I feel like a lot Batman villains can't really hold their own as a solo antagonists and this premise would allow the writer justification to pick whoever would be interesting and best at service the overall mystery. While allowing us to explore all of Gotham, expand the mythos, and build the world this Batman inhabits. There's just a lot of potential with that premise. Think Die Hard with a Vengeance or 16 Blocks but with Batman and a ton of supervillains.

 

[Gandhi]

I've been thinking about the continuity question and the time it's been taking Reeves to write the script. I'm someone who is fine with him taking as long as he needs to write it but I'll admit it has taken a long time. But based on that and the earlier casting rumours, I have some thoughts.

Reeves was announced around February 2017 under the old regime, prior to the release of Wonder Woman and Justice League. Ben Affleck's film was going to be in the shared universe continuity after the events of BvS so it's possible to assume at that time they were going to ask Reeves to continue something in that vein. With the release of WW and JL, there was still time to salvage the shared universe. I know Reeves wanted creative control but that may have only related to no cameos and the making of a Batman-contained story within the shared universe.

Around the time of JL's release, we heard about Gyllenhaal meeting with Reeves which seems strange because of this 25-33 age-range we know from the trades. Gyllenhaal would've been 36 at that time so why would he suddenly go from that to someone much younger? There's video of Reeves speaking at the press events for War For the Planet of the Apes in July 2017 where he states that he was just beginning work on his Batman movie.

Justice League then releases to be an absolute ****show and DC decides they are going to hire someone in the New Year to run DC Films. Walter Hamada is hired in January 2018. Is it possible someone said to Reeves around Nov/Dec 2017 to hold off until this new person was hired to discuss the way forward? Possibly, and so at the beginning of 2018 he had to scrap the work that was done so far and was given licence to reboot the franchise and cast a much younger Batman? Therefore not starting the current script until Feb/March 2018.

Just some potential theories, of which we'll probably never know the answers. Just thought the Gyllenhaal thing was strange, given the names that came after. But the continuity question will be answered soon enough and like all of you, I can't wait to watch this movie unfold as more news comes out.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Are we really believing these rumors from this rando website? Vanessa Hudgens as Catwoman? Theo Rossi as Bane? Wtf? I’m sorry but these are both very bad ideas. Rossi completely failed to come across as a hardass in Luke Cage, I cant be the only one that thinks this. He was great in SOA though. Hudgens’ career has significantly slowed down, I can’t imagine WB signing her for this. They’ll go for someone whose career is on an upswing.

The rest of that report just feels like lazy guesswork. I don’t buy it at all. And I hope it’s not true.

 

[thebatfan5194]

Are we really believing these rumors from this rando website? Vanessa Hudgens as Catwoman? Theo Rossi as Bane? Wtf? I’m sorry but these are both very bad ideas. Rossi completely failed to come across as a hardass in Luke Cage, I cant be the only one that thinks this. He was great in SOA though. Hudgens’ career has significantly slowed down, I can’t imagine WB signing her for this. They’ll go for someone whose career is on an upswing.

The rest of that report just feels like lazy guesswork. I don’t buy it at all. And I hope it’s not true.

I think the only reason anyone is taking it even a little seriously is because he was one of the first people to say Pattinson was a favorite for the role.

 

[Marvel united]

Well, no, to be fair to the guy, he is a bit more than just "some YouTuber." Ryan Unicomb works in the film industry and has ties to Warner Bros, having worked on Kong: Skull Island and was making a documentary at some point in the past about George Miller's Justice League: Mortal. Supposedly he got access to concept art for the film that had never been made public before or something?

Whether this means his info is legit remains to be seen, but there is some reason to at least consider his info when talking about the film.

Looking at his resume makes me believe him

 

[C Prometheus]

Looking at his resume makes me believe him

I definitely believe Unicomb is being sincere in what he's said. However I'm keeping a tempered mind when it comes to the rumor itself. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.