As a fan of the various iterations of the ‘Batman’ film franchise, the easiest way to quickly figure out the tone of the film you’re watching is to see how the director treats the superhero’s car, the Batmobile. Tim Burton’s Batmobile is sleek, dark, and stylish. Joel Schumacher added neon to his superhero vehicle, making it almost cartoonish. Christopher Nolan brought realism to his Batmobile, making it more of a tank-inspired combat vehicle. Now, for Matt Reeves, he’s leaning into a more horror-inspired, muscle-y Batmobile for his upcoming film, “The Batman.”
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Speaking to Empire Magazine (via /Film), Matt Reeves talked about his surprising inspiration for the car Robert Pattison’s Batman will drive in the upcoming film. And instead of going super realistic or incredibly comic book-y, Reeves is continuing to push his desire to create a scary Bat-film by saying his Batmobile has horror roots.
“[The Batmobile] has to make an appearance out of the shadows to intimidate, so I thought of it almost like Stephen King’s ‘Christine,’” said I liked the idea of the car itself as a horror figure, making an animalistic appearance to really scare the hell out of the people Batman’s pursuing. There is absolutely a horror-genre aspect to this movie.”
It’s clear that Matt Reeves is going for a more scary interpretation of Batman for the new film. The trailers have made it seem as if The Riddler (Paul Dano) is a psychopathic serial killer instead of the joke-y version we’ve seen in previous films and TV iterations. In addition, Pattinson’s clearly channeling some severe mental illness for his take on Bruce Wayne, aka Batman. Reeves even compared his Bruce Wayne to Kurt Cobain. So, it makes sense that the darkness and horror inspiration permeates everything else, including the vehicles.
We’ll see how it all comes together when “The Batman” hits theaters on March 4, 2022.