The Batman Reportedly Tested a Four-Hour Cut

For the people complaining about the three-hour runtime of The Batman, consider what the reaction would be if the Warner Bros. film wound up being four hours long. Sources for The Hollywood Reporter told the outlet how some early test screenings for the Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz DC movie featured a four-hour cut. The Batman has already been confirmed to be 2 hours and 47 minutes, and that’s without counting the credits. The 167 minutes make it the longest Batman movie ever, topping the 165 minutes for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

A previous rumor had The Batman clocking in at 2 hours 56 minutes, which isn’t too far off from the official runtime when you factor in the length of the credits. Director Matt Reeves and Warner Bros. must be confident in the film if they didn’t hesitate to show early audiences a cut that’s four hours long. It also makes you wonder how much of The Batman is going to be left on the cutting room floor? No matter how good The Batman turns out to be, fans will want to know what deleted scenes were left out. Of course, the lost footage can always be used as special features on the home and digital release.

Matt Reeves surprised fans this week by releasing the main theme music for The Batman, composed by the talented Michael Giacchino. “My brilliant friend @m_giacchino wrote this theme before I ever shot a frame of @TheBatman,” Reeves wrote on Twitter Thursday night. “I can still remember listening to it in my car with #DylanClark before we went onto the stage to do #RobertPattinson’s screen test. We both had chills. Listen now.”

The filmmaker has also discussed how The Batman needs to be the “world’s greatest detective story,” since being a detective is core to the Dark Knight’s character.

“I wanted to do a story in which the corruption of Gotham was one of the most important aspects of the story, because Gotham is a sick place,” Reeves told Movie Maker. “Bruce is desperate to try and make a change,” Reeves said. “He’s still stuck, to be honest, emotionally stunted at being 10 years old, because that’s a trauma you don’t get past—witnessing your parents murder in this place. He’s looking to create meaning, right? This is the only meaning he can find. … I think he imagines that if he can do this, somehow he can reverse what’s happened, which will never be reversed. This is a very human impulse, right? To try and relive something and remake it.”

Would you be up for sitting through a four-hour cut of The Batman? Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments!