Batman has been around for 75 years and part of what has made him endure is his ability to adapt with the times. Almost every generation has gotten their own version of the Caped Crusader that reflects the times it inhabited. In the 60’s, Adam West’s campy Batman TV show ruled the airwaves. In the 80’s, Frank Miller put his signature spin on the character, in The Dark Knight Returns, which reflected on the pop culture and politics of the its day. Tim Burton’s gothic Batman movie defined the character for an era. Only to be followed by a return to camp in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin that doomed the character’s live-action future.
In 2005, director Christopher Nolan got the opportunity to tell the Batman story that he wanted to tell. Nolan explains to Coming Soon, how it came together and his original intentions for Batman Begins:
It had reached the end of its last sort of life, if you’d like. And at the time, nobody used the term “reboot” — that didn’t exist — so it was really a question of, ‘What would you do with this?’ I said, ‘Well, actually, that is something I’m interested in,’ because one of the great films that I am very influenced by that we haven’t talked about was Dick Donner’s Superman….And so I was able to get in the studio and say, ‘Well, that’s what I would do with it.’ I don’t even know who was first banging around the term ‘reboot’ or whatever, but it was after Batman Begins, so we didn’t have any kind of reference for that idea of kind of resetting a franchise. It was more a thing of, ‘Nobody’s ever made this origin story in this way and treated it as a piece of action filmmaking, a sort of contemporary action blockbuster.’
He wanted to tell the origin of Batman in a grounded fashion, while keeping the focus of the movie on the title character. In almost every other live-action incarnation of Batman up until that point, rarely delved deep into the psychology of Bruce Wayne. In fact, most of the previous films spent more time on the villain’s origins, than the hero himself.
In the process of crafting Academy-Award winning films out of comic book source material, his films legitimized the genre and revolutionized visual effects. Nolan was one of the first directors to use IMAX cameras on set and literally expanded the canvas, 75 feet high, for telling comic book stories. However there is a growing faction who are ready to see a new incarnation of the Dark Knight. Recently director Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service) commented on the shift of comic book movies.
“People want fun and escapism at the moment…Look at the success of Guardians of the Galaxy. I think Nolan kick-started a very dark, bleak style of superhero escapism, and I think people have had enough of it.”
A Batman for a new generation will be making its debut next year when Ben Affleck straps on the cape and cowl in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Now is a good time to take a look back at the Nolanverse. In this week’s podcast Karina and TC debate the merits of Nolan’s Batman films. Karina defends the trilogy and TC is ready for a change. It’s an awesome episode. They also reveal some fun new changes in store for the podcast for 2015, so enjoy!
Official Synopsis:
Happy New Year!! Epic Comicast is back with a brand new episode. Join us as we discuss and debate the “Nolanverse” and whether or not we felt it was a successful interpretation of OUR Batman.
SHOW NOTES
Welcome Back!Audible/iTunes Reviews/DonationsFrank Mula: The Devil You KnowTC’s TweetsNolanverseWhat We’re Watching On Netflix
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Source: Coming Soon