Indeed, multiple reports have suggested that Warner Bros.’ approach to its superhero movies has been dysfunctional from the ground up, from multiple simultaneous drafts by different writers on “Wonder Woman” and “Aquaman” to the recent delay on “The Flash” (that studio boss Kevin Tsujihara doesn’t have a background in movies has been frequently telling).
Things may have changed — a behind-the-scenes retool saw Geoff Johns (who also wrote the first draft of “The Batman,” seemingly) and producer Jon Berg installed as Kevin Feige-style overseers of the DC world. And Reeves has clearly shown that he can work well within the studio system. But most of the signs are that even if he sticks with the movie, he’ll have to fight some battles to stop the finished film ending up with studio fingerprints all over it. And they won’t be the only cooks in the kitchen: there’s also a powerful star who’s worked on the script, is beloved by the studio, and was going to direct the movie. Affleck undoubtedly gave Reeves the thumbs up, but that doesn’t mean he’s giving up his voice.
Assuming that everything goes smoothly behind the scenes, there may be even greater challenges facing a Batman movie in the latter part of the 2010s: namely, that there have already been a lot of Batman movies.
The best takes on the character, like Nolan’s, have been the ones with the clearest vision. But Reeves will have to find a version that stands apart from the grounded realism of Nolan’s trilogy, the Gothic weirdness of Tim Burton’s pictures, and the campiness of Joel Schumacher’s efforts. That’s quite the task, but he’ll also have to find a version that builds on the pre-existing Ben Affleck incarnation of Batman, a take on the character that fits into the older, world-weary, villain torturing, literally murderous character we saw in ‘Dawn Of Justice.’
Beyond that, it’ll also have to gel with the version that Affleck delivers in “Justice League,” which from the teaser trailer looks to be a more jocular, Tony Stark-ish take. And it’ll have to stay clear of the shadow of the ‘Lego Batman’ version, a piss-take of many of the hero’s characteristics, from his adversarial relationship with the Joker to his grim-dark persona.
It’s going to be a tricky equation to pull off, and we’re sure that Reeves was aware of that when he started taking the meetings. And despite all those words above, we’re optimistic. The character remains enduring because he’s so mutable, and grounded-and-gritty isn’t the only version you can go. In fact, we hope that Reeves embraces the post-“Justice League” world and finds something weirder and more stylized — cues are there to be taken from the classic 1990s animated series, for instance, while we’ve long suspected that any new Bat-movie would (like the best scene in ‘Dawn of Justice,’ his beatdown of a warehouse full of criminals) take cues from the “Arkham Asylum” games (and, of course, a Batman movie in the Trump era is potentially interesting on a number of levels)
In this situation, it feels like Reeves is almost the best director we could have asked for. He genuinely loves genre fare, we know he has the chops, he’s unfazed by serious challenges and he presumably has the backing right now of Affleck. It’s the first time in a while we’ve been genuinely optimistic about a DC movie, though the studio will need to give him the time and the space to let make him the movie he wants to make. But if they do, we could end up with a genuinely great Batman film, something that was almost unthinkable just a few months ago, and a DC movie universe with real promise.
