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BATMAN
BEGINS PANEL:
Participants:
David Goyer
Cillian Murphy
The
film stars:
Christian Bale
Morgan Freeman
Liam Neeson
Michael Caine
Katie Holmes
Gary Oldman
Cillian Murphy
Ken Watanabe
Tom Wilkinson
Release
date:
June 17, 2005
This was quite a disappointing movie panel, especially when
you consider the hype on the film, the fact that it’s actually a
major comic book-based movie and the fact that Warner Bros had, thus
far, done a great job of marketing the film to its fans. I was
expecting, at least, one surprise guest, at least one surprise clip,
or at the very least, the film’s teaser trailer, but was left with
none of that, and a decent panel conversation with David Goyer, who
despite coming off like a man who knows his shit when it comes to
comics and movies, didn’t really open up in terms of the film’s
plotline or the depths of its characters.
What was strangest about this panel was that it did feature a
1-minute clip of director Christopher Nolan and Battie himself,
Christian Bale, speaking directly to the Comic Con audience via a
videotaped message from London. And while Nolan appeared quite
chipper and happy to apologize and wish the crowd his best, Bale
(who I personally absolutely adore!), looked bored and seemingly
angry to be there. His lines also felt forced. I'm not sure what
happened here, but WB should never have let this tape show in front
of this audience. Bale had me as Bruce Wayne until he showed seeming
contempt for his fans here. Hopefully, I'm wrong and the lad was
just having an "off day" or he was still
"method" as Bruce Wayne and couldn't lighten up for the
fans. All that to say, I was quite disappointing with this short
panel, but did pick up some bits, all of which you read about below:
- The
film is likely to be wrapping around September 16th
or so, and would ultimately end up being a 140-day shoot
(approximately)
- Cillian
was asked about his interest in comics before the film and said
that he was never really “into” them, but was sent a whole
bunch of them by DC featuring his character of the Scarecrow,
and read them all. He said that “fear” was a big part of his
character, and he also discussed the physicality of fear, which
is a focus in the film.
- When
asked about which Scarecrow costume Cillian would be wearing,
both gentlemen said that they could not give that away
(Editor’s note: Then why are you here?)
- Goyer
said that he was “excited” to have written an “origin”
story (dating approximately 10 years before any of the other
BATMAN movies) because he didn’t feel tied down to any of the
other BATMAN films that way. He also said that there were
elements of many BATMAN books in the movie, but none were taken
outright. He mentioned BATMAN: YEAR ONE and Jeff Loeb’s stuff,
but said that no specific plot elements were taken from Loebb,
more of his “feel”, and that the film was much “bigger”
than YEAR ONE.
- Goyer
re-iterated many times how Warner Brothers was 100% behind the
creative team for this film, and allowed director Christopher
Nolan to make all of his own creative decisions, and trusted
them all the way. Goyer said that they “knew that we knew what
we were doing”, so they trusted it in our hands.
- When
asked about why they had come to the Comic-Con to push the film,
Goyer said that the Comic-Con had become the place to begin to
mount a campaign for most any genre film nowadays, and that if
they hadn’t shown up, it would have been a glaring omission
(Editor’s note: Instead, the absence of the BATMAN BEGINS
teaser turned out to be the glaring omission)
- When
asked about a sequel to this film, Goyer said that despite this
film ending quite “satisfactorily”, the conclusion certainly
lent itself to a follow-up, for anyone who was interested. He
currently wasn’t writing (or hired to write) the sequel just
yet. He also said that he doubted Nolan would want to hear
anything about that right now, since he was knee-deep in BATMAN
BEGINS as we speak.
- When
asked about the film’s title, Goyer revealed that BATMAN: THE
INTIMIDATION GAME was never an option (just a rumor), but that
he had come up with BATMAN: THE BEGINNING, which Nolan had
tweaked to BATMAN BEGINS, which Goyer also thought was perfect.
- Goyer
was in pre-production for BLADE 3 when Nolan himself called to
ask him to write the BATMAN script. Goyer wanted to, and even
discussed his ideas with the director, but said that he simply
didn’t have the time to do it. Nolan kept calling him until he
accepted and Goyer says that he was glad that he did.
- Inevitably,
a fan stood up and asked Goyer how we should trust Warner
Brothers, the same studio that came out with CATWOMAN? Goyer was
honest and said that it was a “fair question” and that Nolan
was a great filmmaker and would not let the fans down.
- Another
fan stood up and praised the film to this point, but said that
he was hesitant about the Batmobile, which looked way too much
like a “tractor”. Goyer, once again, said that he understood
the comment, but that they always approached elements of the
sort from the story’s point of view, and what purpose it would
serve in the story. He said that we would all “understand”
once we saw the film, and that it was “very cool”.
- Asked
about his opinion on the recent hiring of X-MEN director Bryan
Singer as the helmer of the next SUPERMAN movie, Goyer said,
“My opinion of the new SUPERMAN team is…thank God! I’m
really excited about him being on the film.”
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TO SAN DIEGO COMIC CON CENTRAL HERE
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