An “exclusive” this week claims to give away the “basic plot” of The Batman. Some of it meshes with what we’ve reported previously, but cautiously keep the salt handy.
Fandom Wire – who reported last week the Snyder Cut of Justice League has a snowball’s chance in Tartarus of being released – is saying they know the villain and plot of The Batman.
Related: Director Matt Reeves Says The Batman Will Have a ”Humanist Bent” Like His Other Films
Previous spoilers suggested the script will center around an election for Gotham’s Mayor and one of the candidates is killed. Fandom Wire seconds this rumored plot but adds there are a few candidates and all of them are threatened.
Someone is picking them off one at a time and it isn’t hard to figure out the culprit is The Riddler (Paul Dano), given the riddles and clues he leaves behind. Batman’s mission is to find out who Riddler is more so than dealing with Gotham’s sundry Rogues in the fashion of Long Halloween.
We reported the depths of Riddler’s involvement and insanity months ago. Based on script leaks, he and his thugs crash a funeral and leave bodies in their wake. FW hints the funeral scene is just one of many action set-pieces being worked on even now during the lockdown.
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FW calls the film a detective story, comparing it to Sherlock Holmes and designating James Gordon (Jeffery Wright) the Bat’s Dr. Watson on the case. Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) also helps but she looks out for herself in the end.
Matt Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter The Batman would be a noirish detective tale told from Bruce’s perspective:
“It’s very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale. It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional. It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime, it’s going to allow his character to have an arc so that he can go through a transformation.“
Reeves reportedly will give us a lived-in Gotham fraught with a crime syndicate to support that arc. John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone is mentioned, but not the leak – which isn’t necessarily true – claiming he is killed by Riddler after the first third.
The same leak alleged Falcone is the target of Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) who sends Firefly to burn down Falcone’s properties.
Fandom Wire states Cobblepot is “actually written as a good guy” running for Mayor trying not to get assassinated. He also goes by Os, implying he isn’t dubbed “The Penguin.”
Not mentioned by FW, but it’s more than likely we will get to see Farrell in some kind of prosthetics to accentuate his Penguin look. Rob McClure detailed on a recent episode of Stars in The House that he saw them putting together the prosthetics for Penguin.
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Riddler dominating the picture as the main bad is a rumor gaining traction but Penguin may be perpetuating a ruse to gain the public trust – similar to Batman Returns. Don’t be surprised if he is secretly a mobster with Riddler in his pocket. The leak figuring in Firefly certainly casts Oswald as a violent crimelord.
Also, Riddler, Penguin, Falcone, and Catwoman will not be joined by Harvey Dent as once thought. He “was removed from the script at the last minute,” says FW, dispelling the notion Peter Sarsgaard plays the District Attorney.
Perhaps Reeves is biding his time to make a trilogy, after all, before setting the stage for Two-Face.
The plot is said to be much simpler than expected. While it should bear echoes of Long Halloween and Year One, those storylines will be loosely lifted from, ultimately.
Finally, Fandom Wire doubles down on The Flash rebooting the DC Extending Universe so Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight can join the Justice League.
Delayed again, The Batman’s release was moved to October 2021.