The Batman Director Matt Reeves Says Robert Pattinson’s Version is Inspired by Kurt Cobain

Batman is arguably the most popular comic character ever created. In the modern age, the Caped Crusader has appeared in nearly a dozen movies in one shape or another; even then, Matt Reeves’ The Batman looks to introduce a fresh take on the character. Reeves himself has said his upcoming feature will focus on the earliest years of the vigilante’s time as Batman in Gotham. The younger Bruce Wayne even has some real-world inspiration in the form of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

In the Batman-themed cover story for the latest issue of Empire, Reeves revealed he was listening to Nirvana while fleshing out the first act of the film. That’s when an idea struck.

“When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’,” Reeves told the magazine in the upcoming The Batman issue. “That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse. So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalised version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.”

For what it’s worth, that very song—”Something in the Way”—was the song featured in both of The Batman trailers released to the public so far.

Reeves has always stressed the movie will focus on Wayne’s role as the world’s great detective.

“It’s very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale. It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional,” the filmmaker previously told THR. “It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime, it’s going to allow his character to have an arc so that he can go through a transformation.”

The Batman is currently set to be released on March 4, 2022.

Cover photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic