‘The Batman’ Interview With Matt Reeves
“The Batman” writer/director Matt Reeves discusses his DC movie in this interview with CinemaBlend Managing Editor Sean O’Connell. He reveals "The Batman" has a deleted Arkham scene where Robert Pattinson’s Batman meets and speaks with that massive cameo character and more!
Transcript
00:00 one of the lines from the scene that's not in
00:02 is that on scene prisoner says to him,
00:04 he says, "It's almost our anniversary, isn't it?"
00:06 And you realize that they have a relationship
00:08 that exists before that character,
00:10 who is the character that you think he is.
00:13 [upbeat music]
00:16 - Matt Reeves, in a time when directors
00:20 are fighting tooth and nail
00:21 to get as much footage as possible into their final cut,
00:24 how do you get a three hour cut of a movie
00:26 released for theatrical?
00:29 - I mean, honestly, I have to thank Warner Brothers
00:33 for respecting the vision of the movie.
00:34 And the movie is, look, it's so many things.
00:38 Obviously, it's a propulsive spectacle,
00:42 it's a horror movie,
00:43 but it's also a very intricate detective story.
00:47 And I wanted to do the world's greatest detective story
00:50 for Batman because it hadn't been done
00:53 to the degree that I wanted to in a movie,
00:56 and they let us do it.
00:57 And so it's a very expansive kind of story.
01:01 We're swinging for the fences here
01:02 in terms of trying to give you a vision of Gotham
01:04 that's new.
01:05 - I'm not lying when I tell you that when it ended, Matt,
01:07 I was pissed and I would have sat there
01:09 for another three hours
01:10 because I just loved the environment.
01:12 So is there a longer cut?
01:14 Is there more time that we might get to see later?
01:16 - There is not.
01:17 I mean, one of the things that I have to say
01:19 that I am incredibly grateful
01:20 that Warner Brothers let me see the movie
01:23 through the way that they did,
01:25 and that it's the movie, this is the cut.
01:27 I mean, there's not some cut that's waiting to be seen.
01:30 There is a scene, a couple scenes,
01:33 that aren't in the movie
01:34 'cause I didn't think that they worked in the movie
01:37 to make the best movie,
01:39 but they're scenes that I love.
01:40 And after the movie is out,
01:43 I will absolutely want to release these scenes
01:45 'cause I think they're really cool to see.
01:47 There's another Arkham scene
01:48 that involves the unseen prisoner
01:50 that you see near the end of the movie,
01:52 and Batman goes to him in order to profile the Riddler
01:55 because he's being written to.
01:57 So that's a scene that I'm really excited about.
01:59 And there's a really cool scene with Colin, with Penguin,
02:04 where you see Selina go to him
02:07 and you get a little glimpse
02:08 kind of into a little bit more of his character.
02:10 So those are scenes that I think we'll probably release
02:13 in some way as deleted scenes,
02:14 but they're not part of some cut that I wish.
02:17 This is the cut I wanted to make.
02:19 And the one that's in the theaters
02:20 is the one that I intended.
02:22 And I'm really grateful that Warner Brothers
02:24 let me do that.
02:25 - That's outstanding.
02:26 I can't wait to see those scenes.
02:27 So if this is year two
02:29 of this particular iteration of Batman,
02:31 how much thought did you give it
02:32 to who he might've confronted in year one?
02:36 - Well, you know, the unseen prisoner
02:37 is one of the characters
02:38 that he would have confronted in year one,
02:40 and that's how he ended up there.
02:41 So they have a relationship.
02:43 There's actually a,
02:45 one of the lines from the scene that's not in
02:49 is that unseen prisoner says to him,
02:51 he says, "It's almost our anniversary, isn't it?"
02:52 And you realize that there's a,
02:54 they have a relationship that exists before that character,
02:57 who is the character that you think he is,
03:00 before that character becomes that character.
03:03 He hasn't yet declared himself that character,
03:05 but they have a relationship that begins very, very early
03:09 and is very, very sort of,
03:11 they're sort of entwined with each other
03:14 in a very specific way.
03:15 And I think the idea in the comics
03:18 that the Rose Gallery characters create themselves
03:20 in response to the appearance of this vigilante in Gotham
03:25 who becomes known as the Batman,
03:27 I wanted this character to be a character
03:29 who hadn't yet declared himself,
03:31 but all the seeds were there.
03:34 - I'm out of time,
03:35 but we're getting you for the "Real Blind" podcast
03:36 a little bit later on today,
03:37 so we'll go even geekier, Matt.
03:39 So thank you for your time. - Cool, awesome.
03:40 - I appreciate it. - Thanks, man.
03:42 - All right, bye now. - Talk to you soon.
03:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]