A previous report that indicated the role of Batman came down to Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult and a set of screen tests can be confirmed. The two donned old Batsuits and filmed scenes for Matt Reeves to judge their presence and performance says The Hollywood Reporter.
Pattinson flew to Los Angeles right after appearing at the Cannes Film Festival in France to film his screen test and won Reeves over as of last Friday. By then, many sources were sure he already had the role, so it came as a shock the Twilight star had to compete for it.
Well, the rumor mill and DC fans can relax now that Robert Pattinson is officially Batman for Reeves’s slowly gestating project. Oddly enough, as protracted and as much of a virtual nailbiter the process was to outsiders, insiders describe it as quick. One unnamed insider at Warner Bros. told THR: “It was quick. Quicker than normal.”
Maybe to them but the lead-up to The Batman has been a long drawn-out saga. Reeves was hired to write, direct, and rethink Batman back in 2017. Seeking someone younger, which eliminated the possibility of a Batfleck comeback, THR reports Reeves had Pattinson in mind almost immediately, enamored by his work in Good Time and Maps to the Stars and attentive to the fact the actor hasn’t been part of a superhero franchise yet.
Warner pushed for Hoult regardless of playing Hank McCoy/Beast, in the X-Men films since First Class. The studio’s thinking was Fox’s X-Men franchise isn’t canon related to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, and he was under makeup most of the time, so who cares?
Contention started there and Reeves submerged himself in the respective works of the two English actors, met with them both, and deals were inked in the event either one secured the lead.
Both Pattinson and Hoult fit Reeves’s desired age range but they had to embody the character, their eyes had to move a certain way, and they had to possess a “specialness.” As another insider said, Reeves “wanted very specific things” and “knew what he was looking for.”
What that was? Someone who could play a Caped Crusader in a Gotham City teeming with villains that is past his origin yet “finding his feet” as a hero.
Verified as a standalone post-origin story and scheduled to be released on June 25, 2021, The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, is co-produced, written, and directed by Matt Reeves.
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