Director Matt Reeves Wants ‘The Batman’ to Have “Emotional Resonance”

When the first image of Ben Affleck in his Batman costume surfaced around two years ago, it gained infamy thanks to the sad pose he was striking. Now it looks like Matt Reeves, the man who is directing Affleck's first solo Batman film, is planning to take us back to that time and give us a Batman film with "emotional resonance."

In an interview with Yahoo! Movies UK promoting his soon-to-be released film War for the Planet of the Apes, Reeves said that his Batman film will be taking some cues not just from the Apes franchise, but also from director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy...

“I think that the metaphors of both of the franchises [Batman and Apes] enable you to tell stories that have deep emotional resonance. That’s actually what excites me about it. It’s interesting because I was obsessed with both as a child, and yet there is something potentially very adult about what you can explore under the cover of that fantasy. That is what draws me to it, and that’s what I’m excited about.

“I think the other thing that I really admire in what [Nolan] did was knowing what it is to make a big studio film,” Reeves concludes, “which often can fall into that sense of committee filmmaking where there’s an anonymity to the point of view of the film.

“What I admire in what [Nolan] does is that, despite being a filmmaker in an enormous system, his perspective comes through. That to me was very exciting, it’s always exciting when you see a film of his because of that. That’s what I feel like I’ve been trying to do, it’s trying to allow a perspective to come through despite the fact that we’re in this very large studio movie world.”

If Reeves can bring some of the magic he's brought to the Apes films to the DCEU, I think it'll be for the best. However, his Apes movies have been undeniable downers, and with the DCEU moving in the opposite direction, one can't help but wonder where a mopey Batman will fit in. We'll find out for sure when The Batman hits theaters in 2019.