Paul Dano Praises Matt Reeves Script for The Batman
One of the (many) unusual byproducts of the COVID-19 pandemic suspending productions all across the globe is how it’s allowed the cast and crew to reflect on their projects before they’re even halfway done principal photography. This ability to assess a work-in-progress is not something filmmakers usually do publicly. This is what’s happened on Matt Reeves The Batman, and it’s led to some pretty intriguing quotes from Reeves himself, as well as members of his cast. You can now add Paul Dano to the list.
Dano plays Edward Nahston, better known as the Riddler, one of Batman’s most iconic villains and a member of the Rogues Gallery Reeves has assembled for his film. Speaking with The Playlist, Dano revealed some thoughts about what Reeves has cooked up for us. Dano had flown home from production to visit his wife (the equally talented Zoe Kazan) and their baby when production was halted. When asked what he felt about the film thus far and the script, Dano told The Playlist “I feel really good about it. I think Matt Reeves is the real deal. I was really surprised by his script, which I think is potentially really powerful.”
Dano’s the Riddler joins Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman and Colin Farrell’s Penguin as the film’s three main villains, at least as far as we know. While Dano notes he “legally can’t say anything about” the film, he reports that there’s “something fun in my character and in all the characters. It’s the kind of movie that we’re just desperate to share on the big screen in a big way. So, I hope we all figure this [coronavirus situation] out and get excited to see a Batman movie. It will be worth it. It’s going to be really cool.”
Colin Farrell also praised Reeves’ script when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! back in January (another lifetime ago, at this point). “He wrote a really beautiful, dark, moving script, really gorgeous,” Farrell told Kimmel. When asked if he’d read the entire script. “Yeah, with a chain around my arm and cryogenically frozen script, it’s all very hush-hush. But it’s a really beautiful script that he wrote and he has a real love for it, Matt.”
Previously, Andy Serkis, who plays Bruce Wayne’s beloved butler and moral conscious Alfred, shared that Reeves’ film will be “darker, broodier” than its predecessors. Serkis told LADbible that Alfred’s relationship with Bruce Wayne is an important piece of the puzzle. “It’s very much about the emotional connection between Alfred and Bruce,” Serkis told LADbible. “That’s really at the center of it. And it is a really exquisite script that Matt has written.”
Meanwhile, Reeves himself told Nerdist that his take on Batman will differ considerably from previous iterations in that we’ll be catching up with Bruce Wayne in the midst of becoming his alter ego, making The Batman neither an origin story or one that starts with the character completely established: “I just felt like well, what I’d love to do is to get a version of this Batman character where he’s not yet fully formed. Where there’s something to do in this context with who that guy would be in this world today and to ground him in all of these broken ways. Because at the end of the day, this guy is doing all of this to deal with trauma in his past.”
Featured image: An image from writer/director Matt Reeves ‘The Batman.’ Courtesy Reeves/Warner Bros.
