t's the fifth time that Dark Knight is being brought to the big screen—he's appeared twice under Tim Burton, to hesitant praise, and twice under Joel Schumacher, who faced harsh criticism. Now, Christopher Nolan, known for his offbeat Memento and Insomnia films, has teamed up with Scooby-Doo producer Charles Roven and Blade: Trinity director and writer David Goyer for an origin story that reflects the early, dark gothic works of Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale and artist Alex Ross.
When thousands of fans attended the press conference announcing the new Batman movie, the first question Goyer got was "How can you guarantee this movie isn't going to suck?" That put the whole team on notice from the outset that they had better get people who are serious about making a decent version of the Caped Crusader.
Christian Bale, the guy who's donning the cape this time around, is as enigmatic as Bruce Wayne himself. He disguised his Welsh accent during interviews, had weight fluctuations of 90 pounds to prepare for the part and read all the works that DC Comics could throw at him. He is helped by two Oscar winners, Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) as the gimmicks guy Lucius Fox and Michael Caine (Cider House Rules, Hannah and Her Sisters) as his loyal butler Alfred. Gary Oldman is Jim Gordon, Cillian Murphy is Dr. Crane, who becomes Scarecrow, and Liam Neeson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe and Linus Roache round out the cast. Batman's love interest, Rachel Dawes, is played by pouty-lipped Katie Holmes, from TV's Dawson's Creek. Unfortunately, her public romance with Tom Cruise eclipsed even the red-carpet premiere at the Chinese Theatre, and Cruise was caught smooching with the actress while at interviews in the Beverly Regent Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Science Fiction Weekly was there to see it all and to interview the cast and crew.
Emma Thomas, you're a producer who works with your husband, director Christopher Nolan. Don't you get tired of that, and did you follow him all over the world, to Iceland and all over?
Thomas: Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. We wouldn't see each other if we didn't work together, for a start. Iceland was the first place we shot, and that storm was real.
Christopher Nolan, how do you go about picking an actor to play Batman?
Nolan: With Batman, the character already exists, and we were free to look at almost 70 years of history of this character as interpreted by many, many different writers. Batman tends to overshadow and obliterate the actors who have played him in the past. We want to tell this story in a realistic fashion and try to explain how and why Bruce Wayne, a man with no super powers, transforms himself into this extraordinary icon. And we needed somebody where we could look into their eyes and believe they have the necessary intensity, the necessary self-discipline, to make themselves into a superhero. And Christian had that extraordinary intensity.
Why did this story need to be told?
Nolan: Because it's never been told before. And that's true in a number of different ways. The origin story has never been addressed onscreen. It's never been definitely outlined in the comics, either. And even more than that, tonally, what I've never seen in superhero movies or comic-book movies is a naturalistic, more realistic, grounded tone to the film.
What did Katie Holmes bring to the part?
Nolan: Rachel has to stand for the life that Bruce Wayne has lost, the life that he's sacrificed, so she has to have this wonderful, beautiful girl-next-door sort of presence. And combined with that she has to have this maturity well beyond her years. She has to have a sense of gravity to her. Katie has the intelligence to project those things and show both those sides.
David Goyer and Charles Roven, when you put the story together, was there any concern that a lot of it takes place outside of Gotham, and it takes an hour before you even see Batman?
Goyer: No. First of all, Bruce Wayne is the main character of this movie, not the villains, and the movie is called Batman Begins. You have got to show Bruce. If you go back to the first Superman, it's a good hour before you see him as Superman. Spider-Man, he's not in the suit until 40 to 50 minutes into it. If you don't care about the character behind the mask, you don't care. The audience has to care about Bruce Wayne before he wears the costume.
Roven: The other movies focus on the villains. The first Tim Burton movie, you spent the first half of the movie [learning] how the character became the Joker. When they did Batman Forever, they spent a long time the first act explaining how Two-Face and The Riddler became themselves. This is about Batman, about Bruce Wayne. In order for this man to be wearing a bat suit, you had to know about the psychology about what was going on.
Christian Bale, you lost 67 pounds for The Machinist and put it all back on, plus 30 pounds for Batman Begins. How did you pull that off?
Bale: Just eating a lot. I did it too fast, really. The losing the weight was fine. The putting the weight back on really felt unhealthy, just because it was too compressed, the amount of time. It's not something I really want to repeat again.
What were your influences for your portrayal of Batman?
Bale: Well, I don't feel like Batman's ever really been defined in any portrayal. So I felt like this was an opportunity to finally do that, in regards to way that Bob Kane originally intended it when he wrote it in 1939. He intended it as being a dark and terrifying and intimidating character. It's kind of ended up being spoofed more. And then there's great material in the newer graphic novels of Frank Miller and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. So the source material is right there, and I just don't think it was ever taken advantage of until now.
You're definitely signed on for more. Where do you see the character going?
Bale: We got a sense of who he is, but I think that you can really look at so much of the graphic novels, and if you refer to that you've got introductions of new adversaries, et cetera. But there's so much. I haven't spoken with anybody about this, but I just really think it would be nice to come up with some kind of R-rated version, too, like a movie that is at one time PG and R, where you do two different edits for it.
At the end of the day, what interested you more, playing Bruce or Batman?
Bale: It was extensions. Batman was his hidden, demonic, raged-filled side. If he didn't have some kind of a channel to let that side out, then he would not be able to function in regular society at all. So, to me, the Batman creature that he creates is an absolutely sincere creature, and one that he is having to control, but in a very haphazard way. He's so capable, as well, in being able to enact violence and to kill and, frankly, I feel like his urges are to kill. He's constantly having to rein himself back in. And then, which Bruce Wayne is he? You've got the façade of the playboy. You've got the one who is heading off and investigating the criminal mind on his journeys. Then you've got the younger man. And I think the only person who truly knows is Alfred.
Michael Caine, your character of Alfred is more of a father figure to Bruce Wayne than a butler, isn't it?
Caine: Yeah, I think it is sort of. I call him Master Wayne throughout the whole picture, even though he's whatever age he is. And he's brought him up, and he tries to teach him moral values, you know. He's all about "you may be a vigilante" and things like that. It's also quite humorous, because he talks to him as though he's a human being, instead of as this incredible icon. And he's also the butler, but he's a bit tougher than that.
Did you get along right away with Bale?
Caine: Right from the start, because I'd grown up in very big country houses, not because I'm in a noble family. My mother was a cook, and so I was always backstairs with the butler and everything, so I knew that relationship, and Christopher, in himself, is very against the Master, he's very egalitarian, he's very against this master/servant thing.
Oh, and here's Katie Holmes. Guess who I saw her kissing in the hallway just now?
So, Katie Holmes, you play a fiercely independent woman in this, how do you think audiences will react to it?
Holmes: I hope they like her. I mean, what I liked about my character was her strength and, you know, she's a fighter. And she's independent, and she's very close to Bruce Wayne, so she's very honest with him. They have this sort of great close relationship. She can handle herself, but does need help every now and then, does need to be saved.
What was your first exposure to Batman?
Holmes: I remember, you know, bits and pieces of the television series when I was younger. I think my brother was really into it; it was always on. And then I, of course, saw the movies as I was growing up. I was just so excited when I found out that Chris Nolan was directing it. The director of Memento and Insomnia! And with a cast like this, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, wow!
Gary Oldman, you play Lieutenant Gordon in this, a relatively nice guy, without the dark edge we're used to seeing you in, like Dracula or Sirius Black or something like that.
Oldman: It was nice not to have no real special makeup, no—believe it or not, I don't like wigs, and I don't like big heavy clothes. It was just nice just to, for once, let someone else be in the sweaty gear. And you forget all the good guys I play. I have played more good guys than I've played bad guys.
Morgan Freeman, you are the kind of James Bond version of Q who supplies Bruce Wayne with all his gadgets. Are you a gadget man in real life?
Freeman: No, no. I mean, I have gadgets, I have the same gadgets everybody else has, because you don't make it in this world without some gadgets or other, you know. But I'm a pilot, and I'm a sailor, so I've got my gadgets on the boat, I've got my gadgets on the airplane, that make me get from point A to point B. I have my gadgets so that people can call me or can e-mail me. And I have gadgets in my car. It's just a gadget; you know, it's like, if I want to go someplace and I don't know where I'm going, I can actually program my gadget. [Laughs.] But I'm not a gadget person, I'm not real well versed in technology at all. I still can't program a VCR.
What did you think of the other movies?
Freeman: Well, you know, the last two were cartoonish, the first two are real innovative Batman movies. I thought that the second Batman was hilarious, with Danny DeVito. I mean, with all of its darkness, with all of its—it had big drama, but there were moments that were like, [I] just almost fell off the chair. This one's unlike that; this one's totally back to the seriousness of Batman.
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Also in this issue:
The cast and crew of Herbie: Fully Loaded
and
William Forsythe
