Well, it sounds like progress is finally being made on The Batman, as writer and director Matt Reeves has reportedly turned in the script to Warner Bros. executives.
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The news comes from The Wrap reporter Umberto Gonzalez, who previously debunked the rumor that the film was eyeing an early 2019 production start. But without a script in place, there’s nothing to get to work on as far as pre-production goes.
But now that the script has been turned in, Warner Bros. can examine the story and make notes, which will hopefully be a quick process as fans are eager to see the Caped Crusader return to the big screen.
It remains to be seen if Ben Affleck will remain under the cowl, or if Reeves will look at someone like Oscar Isaac to replace him. But without a script in place, it seems unlikely that any of these decisions have been finalized at this time.
Reeves previously teased the film’s content, revealing what he wanted to see in a Batman movie and how that informed his storytelling process.
“From the beginning, what I had always spoken about with Warner Brothers and what I was excited about was being in the Batuniverse and really doing something within that sphere. That was always what it was going to be so in that way it hasn’t changed a lot since I first met with them. It’s very much the same thrust if that makes sense,” Reeves said at the Television Critics Association’s summer event.
“A lot of things have happened since then, but the movie, and why I’m excited about it, is it continues to be the same inspirations and excitement of what we talked about in the beginning,” Reeves added.
Fans expecting an adaptation of the seminal stories Batman: Year One or The Dark Knight Returns will be disappointed to learn that the new movie will not be based on those comics. In fact, it won’t be based on any particular comic.
“Year One is one of the many comic books that I love. We are definitely not doing Year One,” Reeves said. “It’s just exciting to be focused very specifically on a tale that is defining for him and very personal to him. Obviously we’re not doing an origin tale or anything like that. We’re doing a story that is definitively Batman though, and trying to tell a story that’s emotional and yet is really about him being the world’s greatest detective and all the things that for me, since I was a kid, made me love Batman.”
The Batman does not yet have a release date.