Robert Pattinson takes on the mantle of Batman for a new dark and desperate opus
After a decade of success with independent films, Robert Pattinson, revealed by his role as a vampire in the Twilight saga, took the initiative to meet with the filmmakers in charge of relaunching the Batman franchise at Warner Bros.
He's the one who came looking for me, and at one point he brought Batman into the conversation, producer Dylan Clark tells AFP.
Even though the young actor - who is now 35 years old - seemed a little bit wary of taking on a big Hollywood production again, he was sincerely interested in the character of Batman and Bruce Wayne, he adds.
The result of this meeting, the new part of the adventures of Batman, soberly entitled The Batman and which is released Friday in the United States.
We find a young Bruce Wayne who starts behind the mask of the night vigilante and who has not yet won the trust of the police and the population of Gotham City.
The hero played by Robert Pattinson still has work to do to perfect his style and tactics to fight the criminals scouring the fictional city. As for his famous gadgets, they are only in the prototype stage.
The Batman, even compared to the already dark trilogy of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale, strikes with its macabre and dark tone.
Batman himself appears desperate, almost depressive, a character partly inspired by Kurt Cobain, the late leader of the band Nirvana whose music is very present in the film.
Robert Pattinson, fresh off a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster Tenet, wanted to play a physical role, Dylan Clark recalls.
He didn't know that the script was going to take this character through an emotional and physical roller coaster and that he was going to put himself through the wringer, he laughs.
This Batman is a tormented hero, almost sometimes an anti-hero. Revenge is really his driving force, says the producer of the new opus.
Batman is in pursuit of the Riddler (Paul Dano), a serial killer of the most sinister kind, but who claims in his delirium to be leading a crusade against the corrupt elites of Gotham. His murders, broadcast on social networks, quickly become very popular with a fringe of the population that will begin to worship the sociopath as a guru.
Gotham is like a mirror of our societies. And I think it's a representation of those people who feel left out and are disaffected, but he defends himself from any political or sensationalist message.
Robert Pattinson succeeds Ben Affleck in this role, whose performances as Batman were received rather coolly by fans of the DC Comics universe.
The actor had written a part of the adventures of Batman that he was also to direct but he completely abandoned the project after a gap in his personal life, between his addiction to alcohol and his divorce from actress Jennifer Garner.
Having to find a new face to embody Batman gave the filmmakers the opportunity to make a fresh start in this saga, inaugurated in comics more than 80 years ago.