Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz and director Matt Reeves dive into the darker tale of ‘The Batman’

In the summer of 2019, when word spread that Robert Pattinson was cast as Bruce Wayne AKA Batman in a new film directed by Matt Reeves, there were waves of mixed reactions. Predictably, those against the casting had typecast the now-35-year-old actor for his work on the Twilight films. But those in favour pointed out that Pattinson had proved his dramatic chops in films such as Remember Me (2010) and Cosmopolis (2012); in both projects, he plays a dysfunctional man of considerable wealth battling some inner demons. Sound familiar?

Following The Batman announcement, Pattinson was under a new microscope placed by DC Comics superfans but the actor – who often chuckles at people’s opinion that he only plays “total freaks” and points out Batman is “the crowning jewel of these characters” – let his work speak for itself: A24’s The Lighthouse (2019), Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (2020), The Devil All The Time (2020) and The King (2020).

 ROBERT PATTINSON as Bruce Wayne in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “THE BATMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
| Photo Credit: Warner Bros Pictures

So as the world neared the spring 2022 release date for The Batman, there was more anticipation than apprehension in seeing Pattinson and Reeves’ approaches to Bruce Wayne’s early years. The odds were further in Pattinson’s favour when, in February 2020, Warner Bros Pictures released a rather convincing first-look image of the actor in Batman’s cowl.

The film also stars Paul Dano as The Riddler, Colin Farrell as Penguin, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Jeffery Wright as James Gordon.

On Batman’s frailties

During a press interaction, Reeves, Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz are all smiles – a far cry from the latter two’s on-screen personas, the latter playing Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman. Pattinson had long been vocal about giving “an immediate yes” to playing Bruce Wayne, associating the tale of the brooding billionaire with tragedy. 

Inspired by 1987’s Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli, as well as Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’, Reeves wants to draw audiences in from the start and he weaved a bit of a psychological game into The Batman‘s opening shot, explaining it is “something I saw when I thought of The Riddler (Paul Dano). When I go to movies, I love the idea of putting the audience in an empathic relationship with the characters. I wanted to start the movie with the giant title ‘The Batman’ and start with this breathing where you’re seeing something from someone’s point-of-view, so audiences wonder ‘is this the Batman?’ but you realise it’s The Riddler.”

The director — known for the newer Planet of the Apes films and the Cloverfield films — gets candid about the frenetic undercurrent for a film of this scale: “The blank page is like being in a dark room on your hands and knees and you’re reaching for something familiar. I knew I wanted to take this iteration of a younger Batman who was early in his arc with room for growth.”

“It allows for an opening and more interesting to play him,” explains Pattinson, speaking on this specific timeline of Batman’s journey, “Normally we see Batman going away, training and coming back, fully confident in his abilities to make a change – he’s heroic. In this, though, I love all his frailties. The scene in which he uses the cape for the first time when he jumps off a ledge shows that; Batman is fallible and is just a man in an armoured suit but this film embraces that.”

Unlike Pattinson, Kravitz’s on-boarding as Catwoman was met with excitement.

ZOË KRAVITZ as Selina Kyle in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “THE BATMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
| Photo Credit: Warner Bros Pictures

Kravitz – who has earlier played Leta Lestrange in the Fantastic Beasts movies, stars as a troubled parent with a secret in Big Little Lies, and is set to star as an agoraphobic technologist in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming Kimi – prepped as much as she could. The 33-year-old sees Selina as “a survivor, and to survive, has had to morphe into what fits her environment, whether she’s alone, at work or with Batman. Her mystery is certainly part of her allure to Batman.” 

The Bat and the Cat

Buzzing on social media are accounts of Pattinson and Kravitz’s chemistry reads that crackled. Pattinson says the writers did right by tapping into the graphic novels that detail Selina and Bruce’s complex relationship. 

Sneaking a surreptitious glance of admiration at Pattinson, Kravitz laughs. “It was easy! We had been friends for a long time; I think a lot [the chemistry] was also on the page, whatever Matt wrote where the emotional states of these characters are so clear and the connection they find in each other and why it was so clear. They both felt alone their entire lives and to meet somebody who has a similar way of thinking is the heart of the story; it is a big deal for these characters to feel this way. If you’re attached to your character emotionally, it is easy to play them.”

ROBERT PATTINSON and director MATT REEVES and on the set in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “THE BATMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
| Photo Credit: Warner Bros Pictures

Agreeing with this, Pattinson points out, “On massive productions like this, it is easy to feel quite disconnected from the story because there are so many moving parts.”

He continues, “So to have another performer [indicates to Kravitz] whom you can see putting everything into it, is a reflective experience, making you want to work harder. Occasionally, you come across actors who wouldn’t put that level of effort in, but I always looked at Zoë who trained constantly, even during rehearsals.” To prepare her body language as femme fatale Selina, Kravitz studied videos of cats and lions fighting, noting the capoeria-martial arts movements.

A classic noir hue

The two actors are not just bound by their respect for each other but also for writer-director Matt Reeves who understood the weight of bringing a neo-noir shade to The Batman. A lot of this lay in the sound design — which he entrusted to a core team he has worked with since Cloverfield (2008) — and the score.

“They’re critical in placing you in the point-of-view of Batman,” comments Reeves, “We mixed the sound in Dolby Atmos and when we watched the movie in the theatre, it actually moved our hair. We wanted the film to feel subjective with the visceral quality of a classic noir film. If Batman is knocked out, you go out with him — and the sound helps that.”

ROBERT PATTINSON as Batman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “THE BATMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
| Photo Credit: Warner Bros Pictures

While the film is peppered with subtleties of sound design, Reeves proudly recalls one game-changing scene where the sound work powers up; Batman is lying on the ground but the surrounding police officers — held off by Gordon — want to unmask him. Reeves wanted the sound design to mark the beginning of Gordon and Batman’s symbiotic yet iconic partnership born out of desperation and utility. Reeves describes, “You can hear the people in the distance with a low thrumming and you go ‘oh, he’s in trouble, he better do something!’ and you finally see Batman surge into reality and the sound comes smacking back.”

The score by Michael Giacchino adds another layer of storytelling to The Batman. “It is all about the emotional landscape of this movie, more into the obsessive drive of Batman with the ‘muscular’ theme about which Michael said ‘maybe this is repetitive, but it speaks to the relentlessness of Batman.’ Then there’s the theme of Bruce which has a lot of melancholy and beauty. And the score for Selena is very noir with a lot of yearning. And there’s a bit of ‘Ave Maria’ twisted into The Riddler’s (Paul Dano) theme.”

Pattinson and his co-stars watched the film after five years of pre-production, filming and post (all during a pandemic); he concludes while accolading Reeves and the makers, “This is the first time I’ve seen a movie of two different iterations before the final one, I got to see this wave of craftmanship just getting more impressive.”

The Batman will play in theatres across India from March 4.