Empire Magazine premieres its Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice issue tomorrow and we’re already getting the full scoop on what to expect from the magazine with new details on the film and news photos.
On Batman:
“We are playing him 45 or 46,” director Zack Snyder confirms. “He has been Batman for 20 years. All the history is there. Was there a Robin at one time? Possibly.” This interview obviously took place before the trailer was released as producer Charles Roven also teased the fate of a certain Boy Wonder. “He has lost those near and dear to him, and not necessarily from old age of disease…”
“Initially I thought, ‘I’m older, it doesn’t seem like the right sort of fit for me,'” adds star Ben Affleck. “Then Zack pitched me his concept for this older, more broken, kind of f**ked up Batman. It was something we haven’t seen. We have seen that Batman is willing to cross the line to protect people. That vigilantism has been a part of his character all along, and we are tapping into that mentality when faced by something as potentially as deadly a Superman.” It’s Superman’s arrival which is really going to shake up the life of Batman by the sound of it, as Snyder went on to explain how the Man of Steel changes the vigilante’s perceptions. “We want to assume that Batman has reached this point in his life and career as a superhero, and Superman represents a sort of philiophical change. He is a paradigm shift for Batman: ‘I’ve been fighting criminals all my life, trying to find justice, and now I am confronted with a concept that is transcendent to me.’ In the face of Superman, a man robbing a bank doesn’t matter.”
“He’s having a crisis of conscience. ‘Am I really just a vigilante who stalks the alleys of Gotham?'” asks Snyder. “It is rich stuff that he deals with. Ben does an amazing job.” Early on in their feature, the director indicates that Batman is in some ways the villain of this movie, but later clarifies that by stating that who fans side with when the heroes meet in battle will ultimately come down to their own perceptions. “It’s a point of view thing. That is why Dawn of Justice is the full title. What it does is allow us to start this conversation.” Don’t go thinking that the Dark Knight isn’t a hero though. The magazine reveals that Batman does indeed have history with The Joker and Harley Quinn, and indeed all of the criminals in Belle Reve who will ultimately make up Task Force X in Suicide Squad. Batman is responsible for putting them all in there. What do you guys think?
On the Justice League:
“What we are doing is ground up all the way. It is one giant story,” director Zack Snyder explains. “The first thing we had was the Justice League concept. The other movies, in a way, have to support that. That is our Wonder Woman, our Aquaman. They have their own creative concepts that supports them, but they do serve Justice League in the coming together of those heroes.”
“I want all the other directors of the other films to be able to stretch their legs and do what they want, but at the same time there is a big interconnected universe. I have given everyone amazing access to our story, to me, and what we are doing. All the films have like minded conceptual jumping on points.” Snyder wasn’t willing to get into specifics, but he did tease what the magazine describes as an “elusive” cameo for Aquaman in Dawn of Justice by promising only that, “You will understand he exists.”
“Kind of a timeline of what every movie is, where it is going, and where the films fit in relation to each other.” Fellow producer Charles Roven meanwhile went into even further details about how they’re ensuring that these movies all exist in the same world while not restricting their directors and writers too much. “We call it the sandbox. It has borders around it, but everybody gets to play in the sandbox. On Suicide Squad, David Ayer has a lot of specific control over his area of the sandbox. Even if he crosses the line a little bit, we see if we can push our boundaries back a little bit.”
On the tone of the DC Extended Universe:
“If it was a Batman movie it would be a much more difficult proposition because of how good Chris’ movies are. We live in gratiitude to those movies. Chris set a tone for the DC Universe, and separated us from Marvel in a great way. We are the legacy pf those movies.” The pressure is obviously on Ben Affleck and Geoff Johns to deliver now then.
As for the rivalry between Marvel and DC, it turns out that it doesn’t really exist. Snyder says that’s down to just how different they ultimately are. “Right from the beginning it is different tonally from where those movies are. You know, DC is an ancient world in a lot of ways.” That’s a point reiterated by producer Deborah Snyder, as she praised Marvel but emphasised the fact that these worlds are tonally very, very different. “I can see how people would want to make it this big, intnse rivalry. Listen, they are so great. I loved Guardians of the Galaxy…our films are a bit more serious. They deal with things that are a little darker. Things that place them in our world.”
On the Batmobile:
“He is not driving a Formula 1 car, he’s driving a tank that is very sexy looking,” he adds. “Batman is rougher, tougher, and grungier. So everything is rough: the weapons, the suit and the car. There are machine guns mounted on the front. When you first see the Batmobile, it is being fixed. It is not – boom! – coming out of the garage brand new. It is scratched, damaged.” That sounds like a very cool scene, and if anything should be a much cooler introduction for the Batmobile than the almost clichéd shot of it in action; Bruce (maybe Alfred) working on it is like something you’d see in the comics after all! It was also important to Tatopoulos to make sure this version of the vehicle differed to what we saw in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. “Batmobiles are often designed very low to the ground, something classical. That didn’t feel fully comfortable for us. I thought the Tumbler was a revolutionary design, with the suspension very high up. I wanted to combine the two vehicles. I wanted something of a motorcycle, too: big wheels, suspension, exhausts.”
To read more details head over to ComicbookMovie.com.
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