Milkman95
Movie Extra & Actor
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I think this is a new interview with some great new stuff. If it's been posted before, I apologize. Enjoy, Nolan really knows Batman and his world in my opinion............
Much of Batman Begins was about Bruce Wayne coming to terms with what he is and what he does. Will you need to modulate his inner struggle in a sequel?
What do you mean by modulate?
Well, at the end of the first film, he sort of comes to terms with what hes doing. Hes got this mission now. So Id imagine that mission will have to evolve a bit.
Oh, yes. Or the world Let me put it this way, without being too specific: When you embark on a mission, its extraordinarily rare that things turn out according to the mission plan. [laughs] The world is going to react in ways you dont expect.
He did indeed achieve a certain sense of purpose or a certain resignation, in terms of how his life is going to wind up being dedicated to this which is something that we begin with. But the world itself responds to our actions in ways we dont anticipate.
You said something interesting about introducing The Joker at the end of Batman Begins: Thats the point of the final scene. That [fighting evil] is not going to be easy. Its going to get harder. Is that a touchstone for the sequel?
Very much. Obviously, I cant really talk much about it at this stage but I think if you watch that last scene, it gives you a very, very clear direction of where the storys going.
When Commissioner Gordon turns over that playing card, theres a sense of dread.
Yeah.
Are the villains going to try to define themselves as extremely as Batman defines himself?
Yeah, in their own way.
Are you drawing any inspiration from Alan Moores Killing Joke which made a point of grounding The Joker not in this Clown Prince of Crime stuff, but more in sadness and failure?
Were drawing from the entire canon. I dont want to talk too specifically about it. The thing I will say is that if you go back to the very first appearance of the Joker in the comics
Which Ive read. And hes a bastard.
[emphatically] Yeah. And theres a very clear direction Its pretty surprising how clearly drawn that character is in that book.
If youve read those early stories, Heath Ledger makes sense as a casting choice.
It certainly makes sense to me.
We got to see a lot more of Bruce Wayne out of costume in Batman Begins than in the prior Batman movies. He was also a lot more fun buying hotels and engineering corporate takeovers. Will Batmans alter ego play as prominent a role in the sequel?
Yeah. I mean, Bruce, to me, isnt just Batman. There are also aspects of Bruce Wayne that are private and public.
Given how muted Batman Begins was, in terms of tone and color, do you see any risks in overstuffing a movie with colorful villains?
Well, you have to be careful about everything. [long, long pause]
[laughs] Well. Youve said, I actually see myself as a very mainstream filmmaker and always have. Why do some people keep pegging you even after Batman Begins as an art-house director?
God, I have no idea. [laughs] The press tends to pigeonhole filmmakers from where they begin which is actually not necessarily completely wrong but I directed a Batman film, and people still talk about my independent-filmmaking roots.
Ridley Scott is a favorite filmmaker of mine and for years, anything he did was immediately related to advertising, because he started out there. Hes only just about past it.
I certainly dont have any complaints if people relate what I do to the independent films I started with. I would hope that all my films would have a personal and sincere foundation whether theyre on a grand scale or not.
Certainly all your films have trafficked in misdirection. Even in Batman Begins, with Liam Neesons character.
Well, Batman is an interesting case in point, because youre dealing with a mythic character. And one of the qualities of mythic stories is familiarity and, to a certain extent, predictability.
I dont mean predictability in its usual pejorative sense. I mean it in the sense of the inevitable thing the thing that allows a story to take on the character.
Theres a tension in the storytelling between the familiar elements that make up the myth and being able to surprise people. What it ultimately amounts to is a need for the filmmaker to achieve the inevitable in surprising ways.
Right. Superhero movies are prone to discussions of whether theyre faithful or not Superhero fans want their characters to be comforting, in a way.
Thats exactly the tension Im talking about. Its something I find very interesting. Because to me, being faithful to the character in the story is not about slavishly following a particular treatment of one comic or graphic novel its about distilling the essence of the myth.
Thats always been the challenge of Batman, and its strength. You treat the essential elements as mileposts, and all the elements in between all the other layers and threads can be fresh and different and surprising. Get that stuff right, and you see the myth in a powerful way.
On a superficial level, when we approached re-designing the Batmobile, we werent too specific about what it had to be other than that it had to be the most powerful car youve ever seen. And it had to be black. Other than that, we didnt say, It has to have a fin, or anything like that. And so youre able to create something completely original and fresh a renewed concept of the most powerful car.
Well, having read the original comics, were just lucky you didnt make it a red sedan. Is the script for Dark Knight finished?
I couldnt tell you that.
Of course you couldnt.
A scripts never finished with me. I write even as were shooting. But weve been working at it for quite a while now.
Will the title be The Dark Knight? Or do you think it will end up being Batman colon The Dark Knight?
No, itll be The Dark Knight.
It sets such a tone.
Yes. Well, thats the idea.
Youve said youre not a huge Internet hound. Were you able to stay away from the net during the Batman Begins pre-release brouhaha?
Yeah, yeah. Certainly, when youre making a film that everybodys watching, youre going to read a lot of stuff about your film and youre not necessarily going to like all of it. So. If youre happy doing that, fine. If youre not
When you take on something like Batman, that increases exponentially, and youre already being hit from all kinds of other directions I dont have e-mail.
You know, with The Prisoner, youre going to go through that again with an entirely different obsessive cult.
Yeah. Well. You know. Ive been through it once before. You have to get on and do what it is youre going to do. Which is not the same thing as being in any way disrespectful of the material. You have to take responsibility for yourself and get on with it and do a good job.
Much of Batman Begins was about Bruce Wayne coming to terms with what he is and what he does. Will you need to modulate his inner struggle in a sequel?
What do you mean by modulate?
Well, at the end of the first film, he sort of comes to terms with what hes doing. Hes got this mission now. So Id imagine that mission will have to evolve a bit.
Oh, yes. Or the world Let me put it this way, without being too specific: When you embark on a mission, its extraordinarily rare that things turn out according to the mission plan. [laughs] The world is going to react in ways you dont expect.
He did indeed achieve a certain sense of purpose or a certain resignation, in terms of how his life is going to wind up being dedicated to this which is something that we begin with. But the world itself responds to our actions in ways we dont anticipate.
You said something interesting about introducing The Joker at the end of Batman Begins: Thats the point of the final scene. That [fighting evil] is not going to be easy. Its going to get harder. Is that a touchstone for the sequel?
Very much. Obviously, I cant really talk much about it at this stage but I think if you watch that last scene, it gives you a very, very clear direction of where the storys going.
When Commissioner Gordon turns over that playing card, theres a sense of dread.
Yeah.
Are the villains going to try to define themselves as extremely as Batman defines himself?
Yeah, in their own way.
Are you drawing any inspiration from Alan Moores Killing Joke which made a point of grounding The Joker not in this Clown Prince of Crime stuff, but more in sadness and failure?
Were drawing from the entire canon. I dont want to talk too specifically about it. The thing I will say is that if you go back to the very first appearance of the Joker in the comics
Which Ive read. And hes a bastard.
[emphatically] Yeah. And theres a very clear direction Its pretty surprising how clearly drawn that character is in that book.
If youve read those early stories, Heath Ledger makes sense as a casting choice.
It certainly makes sense to me.
We got to see a lot more of Bruce Wayne out of costume in Batman Begins than in the prior Batman movies. He was also a lot more fun buying hotels and engineering corporate takeovers. Will Batmans alter ego play as prominent a role in the sequel?
Yeah. I mean, Bruce, to me, isnt just Batman. There are also aspects of Bruce Wayne that are private and public.
Given how muted Batman Begins was, in terms of tone and color, do you see any risks in overstuffing a movie with colorful villains?
Well, you have to be careful about everything. [long, long pause]
[laughs] Well. Youve said, I actually see myself as a very mainstream filmmaker and always have. Why do some people keep pegging you even after Batman Begins as an art-house director?
God, I have no idea. [laughs] The press tends to pigeonhole filmmakers from where they begin which is actually not necessarily completely wrong but I directed a Batman film, and people still talk about my independent-filmmaking roots.
Ridley Scott is a favorite filmmaker of mine and for years, anything he did was immediately related to advertising, because he started out there. Hes only just about past it.
I certainly dont have any complaints if people relate what I do to the independent films I started with. I would hope that all my films would have a personal and sincere foundation whether theyre on a grand scale or not.
Certainly all your films have trafficked in misdirection. Even in Batman Begins, with Liam Neesons character.
Well, Batman is an interesting case in point, because youre dealing with a mythic character. And one of the qualities of mythic stories is familiarity and, to a certain extent, predictability.
I dont mean predictability in its usual pejorative sense. I mean it in the sense of the inevitable thing the thing that allows a story to take on the character.
Theres a tension in the storytelling between the familiar elements that make up the myth and being able to surprise people. What it ultimately amounts to is a need for the filmmaker to achieve the inevitable in surprising ways.
Right. Superhero movies are prone to discussions of whether theyre faithful or not Superhero fans want their characters to be comforting, in a way.
Thats exactly the tension Im talking about. Its something I find very interesting. Because to me, being faithful to the character in the story is not about slavishly following a particular treatment of one comic or graphic novel its about distilling the essence of the myth.
Thats always been the challenge of Batman, and its strength. You treat the essential elements as mileposts, and all the elements in between all the other layers and threads can be fresh and different and surprising. Get that stuff right, and you see the myth in a powerful way.
On a superficial level, when we approached re-designing the Batmobile, we werent too specific about what it had to be other than that it had to be the most powerful car youve ever seen. And it had to be black. Other than that, we didnt say, It has to have a fin, or anything like that. And so youre able to create something completely original and fresh a renewed concept of the most powerful car.
Well, having read the original comics, were just lucky you didnt make it a red sedan. Is the script for Dark Knight finished?
I couldnt tell you that.
Of course you couldnt.
A scripts never finished with me. I write even as were shooting. But weve been working at it for quite a while now.
Will the title be The Dark Knight? Or do you think it will end up being Batman colon The Dark Knight?
No, itll be The Dark Knight.
It sets such a tone.
Yes. Well, thats the idea.
Youve said youre not a huge Internet hound. Were you able to stay away from the net during the Batman Begins pre-release brouhaha?
Yeah, yeah. Certainly, when youre making a film that everybodys watching, youre going to read a lot of stuff about your film and youre not necessarily going to like all of it. So. If youre happy doing that, fine. If youre not
When you take on something like Batman, that increases exponentially, and youre already being hit from all kinds of other directions I dont have e-mail.
You know, with The Prisoner, youre going to go through that again with an entirely different obsessive cult.
Yeah. Well. You know. Ive been through it once before. You have to get on and do what it is youre going to do. Which is not the same thing as being in any way disrespectful of the material. You have to take responsibility for yourself and get on with it and do a good job.
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