Update 23 Dec 2021

Empire has shared another new promotional image featuring Rob and Zoe Kravitz – am loving these daily treats

19 Dec 2021

Empire Magazine has shared two new photos of Rob as The Batman and Bruce Wayne and has provided this insight and excerpt from their interview with Matt Reeves:

When the very first trailer for The Batman arrived in August 2020, it came with a surprising bit of soundtracking – an orchestral, trailer-music-ified version of ‘Something In The Way’ by Nirvana. Sometimes such song choices are a case of just finding the right mood, or a specific connection with the lyrics – but in the case of Matt Reeves’ new take on DC’s Caped Crusader, there was a much more specific reason behind it. It’s a tune that got right to the heart of the filmmaker’s vision for the character – one that proved pivotal in shaping Robert Pattinson’s take on Bruce Wayne, the rich orphan who dons the cowl and shakes down Gotham’s criminal underworld.

“When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’,” Reeves tells Empire in the upcoming The Batman issue. It’s a song that promises a very different take to recent big-screen Bats, from Christian Bale to Ben Affleck â€“ one inspired by a ‘90s grunge icon. “That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse. So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalised version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.”

The ideal actor for the job? Pattinson, whose astonishing performance in the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time had caught Reeves’ attention. “In that movie you could really feel his vulnerability and desperation, but you could also feel his power,” the director explains. “I thought that was a great mix. He’s also got that Kurt Cobain thing, where he looks like a rock star, but you also feel like he could be a recluse.”

It’s not just a different vision of Bruce Wayne – that means a different Batman too, one with fewer of the flashy gadgets afforded by Lucius Fox (who doesn’t appear here) in the Nolan trilogy, and a more home-spun, self-constructed edge. “Bruce has been hiding away,” says Pattinson. “He’s not really a socialite at all. He’s building all these little contraptions and things, just with Alfred. And even Alfred thinks he’s gone insane!”

It’s a difference you’ll see in the Batsuit, which looks like it’s been through the wringer. “He’s been out every single night for two years, getting beaten up and shot and stabbed and burnt, and it shows,” the actor explains. “There’s a bullet graze on the cowl, right at the beginning. I don’t think that’s been done before.”