DC'S BATMAN BEGINS PANEL @ WW: CHICAGO
DCs Batman Begins panel at WizardWorld was an anomaly among the rest of the WizardWorld panels from the fact that wristbands were needed to gain admittance, to the security guards roaming the aisles, to the short collection of clips from the movie that was shown.
Asked if there had been any particular difficulties with the film, Nolan said that the length of the production was somewhat difficult, citing that his first film, Memento, was filmed in 25 days, and that this day, August 14th, was the 108th day of shooting, and there was another month before it would be finished.
Nolan grew up in Chicago, which played a large part in why he chose to film the Gotham City scenes in the city. The director explained that early in development, as he was Photoshopping together a composite of what he thought Gotham City would look like, utilizing pieces of various other cities, he realized that much of what he was created, particularly the lower levels, resembled areas of Chicago he’d known in his youth, and even filmed student films in.
Something that also played a role in choosing Chicago was that Nolan wanted a good location in which to film an extended car chase with the Batmobile. “Batman has this amazing car,” Nolan said, “but you never really see it outside of the studio or off the sets.”
Batman comics played a role more in the scripting and design stages of the film, and Nolan said that he drew on Levitz, Goyer, and DC’s expertise in helping him to figure out what should be in the film, and what should be part of the character. The director acknowledged that Batman: Year One and The Long Halloween were particularly useful as sources for the story he wanted to tell. “I read them and just let them wash around in the back of my head,” the director said. Also speaking of the comics, Nolan said that he viewed the character as an evolution, which allowed him to look at the wealth of Batman stories that had been created over the years, and to pull out what worked form those stories – what had become iconic, and keep it for his version.
Asked how he felt about filling the shoes of Joel Schumacher in regards to taking up the Batman film mantle (a question which earned laughter from the audience), Goyer turned to Nolan and asked, “Yeah, are there going to be bat nipples?”
“No Bat nipples,” an exasperated Nolan replied.
Describing and explaining the design for the new Batmobile, Nolan said that the car was one of the first things to be designed for the film, and was created while the project was in the treatment stage. “I wanted to get across to everyone what my vision, at that stage, of the film should be, so that everyone would get it. “I wanted to create a modern, contemporary version of the character, and this was a way to show that.”
Nolan went on to say that the designs for other Batmobiles in the franchise had ultimately gone retro, as they were extrapolated from sports cars of the era in which the respective Bat-project was made. The director said that he wanted to break with tat retro view, and give the car a design that could do all the things that you think it should be able to do.
“I looked at is as why does he have this car, and how does it help him do what he needs to do,” Nolan explained, adding that in the film, the car is a military prototype which he appropriates for his own use.
When a audience member asked about the freedom the studio has given him to date on the film, Nolan said that Warner Brothers had been marvelous, something which he credited in part to his going to great pains to explain in detail of how he saw the film, and making Warner Brothers understand that whatever Batman film came next had to be very original and fresh.
At this point in the panel, Levitz once again took the podium, and praised Nolan’s vision for the film, as well as his direction. “He has a tremendous personal passion for getting this right in every detail…he’s going to have a hell of a film next year.”
Nolan departed amid his applause.
Levitz then asked for the clip collection to be started (and the policeman who was in attendance at the front of the room, raised his nightvision scope to keep an eye out for anyone filming the presentation).
The footage began with Batman donning his costume, and loading for bear, moving quickly to a battle scene in a trainyard between Batman and some thugs. Sword fighting on ice with Liam Neeson came next as well as a shot of Christian Bale, as Bruce Wayne, making the Batman costume. A scene with the car came next, showing a camouflage-colored prototype driving on an indoor test track. Cut to the inside of the car:
Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox, in passenger seat): “So what do you think?”
Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne, in driver’s seat, hands on wheel, with slight smile): “Does it come in black?”
The montage moved faster from there, showing: a clip of Bruce Wayne training in the Himalayas, and battling for his life among other fighters, a snippet of Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) walking in a hall, Katie Holmes (Rachel Dodson) being attacked by a very realistic (and fear-gas firing) Scarecrow; Bruce battling Ra’s al Ghul; Wayne and Dodson kissing; a flaming Batman falling onto a car roof; and finally, back in the trainyard, with a thug yelling, “Where are you?!?”
The camera moves back slightly, showing Batman, hanging upside down behind him. “Here.”
The crowd, as they say, went nuts, getting quickly to their feet.
It took a little while to calm down, but once people were back in their seats, Levitz said that there was time for Goyer and Thomas to field some questions (meanwhile, a Warner Brothers studio rep collected the Beta SP editing tape, and left with a security guard escort).
Thomas pointed out that what the audience had just seen was still pretty raw. Earlier, Nolan had said that he hasn’t even started editing the film yet – he likes to shoot the complete movie, and then start editing. In light of this comment, Levitz noted that there was no CGI in anything that was just shown, including Batman, on fire, falling from a rooftop onto a car’s roof.
Asked if, since they’ll be included in the film, if the origins of Ra’s or the Scarecrow would be shown, Goyer said that he couldn’t really answer the question. The screenwriter also added, when asked, that Ra’s will not call Batman “detective” as he does in the comics in Batman Begins, because, as Goyer explained, this is the first Batman story – he hasn’t built up that repoutation yet.
Levitz added that even the smallest details, such as what Ra’s calls Batman, have been the subject of debate.
“Every little detail,” Goyer said, adding that while the story of the film draws from the comics, it is still very much its own story, citing the example that, in the comics, Ra’s was never involved in Bruce Wayne’s teaching/training, or the larger origin of Batman.
Thomas said that she; Nolan and Goyer were thankful that Levitz was always on the other end of the phone when they needed his expertise, or that of anyone at DC. Levitz then related a story about being called on a Saturday afternoon when Nolan was stuck on a word in a draft of a scene. Levitz said that he thought about it, then called Denny O‘Neil to ask him, and ultimately, Nolan used his own word.
Goyer agreed with the amount of back and forth, recalling a meeting in Levitz’s office in New York, when he found himself looking at a tapestry of Batman, and asking the Publisher what the things that stuck out of the sides of Batman’s gauntlets were, and what they did. Levitz told him that they were called “scallops.”
“Yeah,” Goyer said, “But what do they do?”
“Now they do do something,” said the screenwriter, later adding that nothing in the film, or the character is arbitrary. Goyer added that he and Nolan added in a plausible reason as to why the costume has the pointy bat ears.
The comment sparked Goyer to tell a story about how closely he and Nolan worked on the film, telling the audience that, for the bulk of the writing, he and the director worked in Nolan’s home office, sitting at a partner desk, which has two sides, allowing them to both have a workspace that attached to the other’s. Thomas was nine months pregnant at the time (Thomas is Nolan’s wife), and at one point, came and stood in the doorway while Nolan was describing a scene to Goyer.
It was the screenwriter who finally stopped Nolan, and asked “Emma, do you need something?” To which Thomas told the two her water had just broken. She had the baby later that day.
“And you thought you were going to get the next day off,” Thomas laughed.
“True story,” Goyer said. “The bulk of Batman Begins was written with the two of us sitting on opposite sides of this partner desk in Chris’ office, with a bassinette between us. Chris would take a turn rocking the baby, and then I’d take a turn.”
For a review of the footage by CBR's Augie De Blieck Jr., click here |
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