'Batman Begins' Q&A - Christopher Nolan

David Fear talks to the British director about working on one of the year's biggest films.

Jun  7 2005

Director Christopher Nolan made his name with thoughtful thrillers like 'Following', 'Momento' and 'Insomnia'. Now he's taking on the summer blockbuster genre with his own spin on the 'Batman' legend.

David Fear caught up with him to find out why he decided to make his move into the mainstream with such comic book fare, how he pitched the film to Warners and whether or not Nolan's bat-suit will have nipples.

You're known for more offbeat fare, like 'Memento'. What drew you to taking on a big-budget Batman film?

I'd heard that Warner Bros. wanted to do something different with the Batman franchise, to explore something in Batman that hadn't previously been brought to light - his origin story. It seemed like an intriguing challenge, plus I'd always felt that the character deserved a film in which he was treated as an extraordinary man in an ordinary world. As opposed to, say, the stylized settings of the TV show and the previous movies.

So that was your pitch to Warner Bros? To treat the Batman character like a human being?

My basic pitch was simply to tell the story in a way that was as gritty and down-to-earth as possible. The closest thing I've ever seen to a superhero movie like that would be Dick Donner's 'Superman', which takes its subject matter seriously. When I think of escapist entertainment I enjoyed growing up, I think of 'Star Wars', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', the best of the James Bond films, all that. They are epic films, but they have a much higher degree of concern with character and story than the so-called blockbuster films we've been seeing over the past five years. That was what this film aspires to be.

In what other ways do you feel that 'Batman Begins' differs from the past films? And please tell us that there are no nipples on the new suit!

[Laughs] I can confirm that there are no nipples on the suit. Basically, the idea was to treat the Batman tale as if it were any other dramatic story you were telling. When you take on a genre like this and do it in a realistic style, great things can arise. For example, look at what Ridley Scott did with 'Alien'. He took a sci-fi film, something that tends to favor artificiality, and made the texture and the tone of it seem so real that audiences fully invested in it. I was seeking to do that with a superhero story, and I think Batman is one of the few heroes you can do that with, since he has no special powers; he's simply a man who does a lot of push-ups.

'Batman Begins' hits cinemas nationwide on June 16, and to read our exclusive interview with Batman star Christian Bale, simply click here

• 
•