'The Batman': Matt Reeves' Initial Script Was 160 Pages Long, Studio Won't Cast An Unknown
After months of silence, it seems like the bat's out of the bag when it comes to director Matt Reeves' highly-anticipated superhero movie The Batman. Earlier this week, Reeves confirmed that his take on the Caped Crusader would be a noir-style story that focuses on Batman being the world's greatest detective – a quality apparent to his character in the comics but one the movies have rarely touched.
Now a new report says The Batman's initial screenplay came in at 160 pages, and with the standard "one page = one minute" rule of screenwriting, that would translate to a movie that's approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes long. That almost certainly won't be the length of the final cut, but you can read the latest update about The Batman below.
In the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision newsletter, we found out about The Batman script and its initial length:
We've got a new detail to reveal right now: the initial script for The Batman is rumoured to have come in at a whopping 160 pages. It isn't staying that way as Reeves is already cutting it down and will be doing more revisions in the months ahead. But still.
In addition to being a fantastic director, Reeves is a solid screenwriter who penned the scripts for The Yards, Let Me In, and War For the Planet of the Apes. It sounds like he has a clear vision for a new take on Batman, and even though he's going to trim back his initial draft of the screenplay, the fact that he had that many pages to begin with may be a result of his passion for the material. Here's hoping those trims will improve the overall flow – and possibly even excise one or two of those villains from Batman's Rogues Gallery. We've all seen what too many villains can do to a superhero movie.
Meanwhile, Variety reporter Justin Kroll recently added this interesting tidbit into the casting conversation about who will replace Ben Affleck to play a younger version of Batman in this film:
In terms of who will play the next Batman, a lot mixed messages of how old the actor will be going aroudn town. Some have said Reeves had wanted younger person in their 20s, others have said the studio would prefer an older actor in their 30s. Let the guessing games begin
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) January 31, 2019
THE BATMAN: this sounds like it could move faster then people would expect with the date set. Hearing studio wants a familiar face and Reeves has his certain age in mind and that age is very specific like I said two names within 7 years of each other; "Too young, too Old'
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) February 1, 2019
It was only about ten years ago that the studio was thinking about casting a complete unknown to play Batman in director's George Miller's Justice League: Mortal. That project never came to pass, but the guy they were looking at was Armie Hammer, long before anyone knew who he was. But appears that Warner Bros. and Reeves are not interested in trying to find the next fresh face here and are looking for someone more established, which, as we saw when Ben Affleck was cast, can be a double-edged sword.
"The casting process will begin shortly," Reeves said earlier this week, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long to figure out who he has in mind for our newest cinematic iteration of The Dark Knight.