DARKEST KNIGHT
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SERIAL KILLERS. CLAWS. AND... KURT COBAIN? IN OUR WORLD-EXCLUSIVE STORY, DIRECTOR MATT REEVES, STAR ROBERT PATTINSON AND MORE TELE US HOW YOU’VE NEVER SEEN THE BATMAN LIKE THIS...
WORDS DAN JOLIN
OUT 04 MAR
WHEN HE WAS THREE OR FOUR YEARS OLD, MATT REEVES FELL ILL WITH A FEVER.
His temperature soared so high, he needed to be constantly hydrated. Day and night, his parents fed him water through an eyedropper. And as they did so, a dark figure in a cowl and a cap manifested from the shadows above him.
“I remember very distinctly, even to this day, seeing Batman on the ceiling,” Reeves tells Empire. “I wasn’t afraid of him. I just thought, ‘Oh. Batman is on my ceiling.’” He smiles, like he’s speaking of an old friend. “There was something about him that connected to me.”
When Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s crimefighting creation appeared in the pyretic Reeves’ bedroom, the character had already been going for three decades: in comic books, film serials, radio dramas, stage shows and, premiering in 1966 (the same year Reeves was born), the wildly popular TV show starring Adam West. During the next half-century, his popularity proliferated, through bold graphic-novel reinterpretations such as Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and Jeph Loeb’s The Long Halloween (Loeb, by the way, taught Reeves screenwriting at the University of Southern California), plus the blockbuster movies of Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder. And that’s not even including all the recent spin-offs and sideshows, taking in Todd Phillips’ Joker, The CW’s Batwoman and Epix’s Pennyworth. Even Michael Keaton’s 1989 Batman is making a retrotastic comeback in next year’s multiverse hopping The Flash.
One might argue that we’ve reached the point of Bat-saturation. So how can Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the first stand-alone Batman movie since Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, bring anything new to the table?
“Batman is 80 years of blood,” says producer Dylan Clark, who also worked with Reeves on Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and War For The Planet Of The Apes. “It’s a thing that’s so intense that when you say yes to it” — as Reeves and he did in February 2017 — “you immediately feel, ‘Oh shit, what have we done? How do we do this?”’ However, that concern did not curtail their ambit
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The latest Empire magazine mentions in the article more directors for The Book of Boba Fett. It mentioned Robert Rodriguez was directing multiple eps, other directors listed were Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard and newcomers, Steph Green and Kevin Tancharoen, but no mention of Jon Faverau directing, which I found interesting, it just listed him as executive producer.
FEATURES / EMPIRE 2022 PREVIEW
PEACEMAKER
JAMES GUNN ON HOW HE’S PUSHING EVERYTHING FURTHER WITH THE SUICIDE SQUAD’S TV SPIN-OFF
CHRIS HEWITT
On a mission: John Cena as the eponymous “glorious asshole”.
OUT TBC
At what point during The Suicide Squad did you realise you wanted to spend more time with Peacemaker?
I think I made jokes about it while we were shooting. I was a big fan as a child of [1979’s] Reb Brown-starring Captain America TV movie. So I imagined doing a very fucked-up version of that, but with Peacemaker, who murders people. His patriotism is a bit more fanatical. So I was joking around on set, and John [Cena] was able to do so much with the character. We didn’t show his background in the same way we saw Bloodsport’s or Ratcatcher’s or Polka-Dot Man’s. I felt there was a lot more to explore.
At first it seems like he dies in The Suicide Squad, but then a post-credits sting reveals he’s still alive. So is this entirely a follow-up?
The story completely takes place today, after The Suicide Squad. We see some of his background, but basically the story is all today.
Most people don’t fit an entire TV show in-between directing huge blockbusters [Gunn is currently filming Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3**]. Did** Peacemaker happen organically for you? Was there a point when you thought, “This is a lot I’m doing”?
There were times of deep, deep, dark regret. Originally I was going to direct four episodes; I ended up directing five. I spent a lot more time on the show than I thought I was going to. There were times when I was not happy with myself and my choices, but it was all worth it.
If you could have, I imagine you would have directed all eight episodes.
Yeah. In fact, if we do a second season, I will direct all eight episodes. Jody Hill directed Episode 4, Rosemary Rodriguez directed Episode 5 and Brad Anderson directs Episode 7. Jody Hill was the very first person I called because when I pitched this to HBO I said, “It’s kind of like Eastbound & Down [which Hill co-created] meets Watchmen.”
That’s fascinating, because Eastbound & Down was anchored by a glorious asshole. Is that the same here?
I think so, yeah. I think “glorious asshole” is a fair way to describe Peacemaker. You know, I write the characte
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Spider in a link chamber? Spider receiving an AVATAR of his own? Spider just sleeping there for shits and giggles? Discuss!
