Batman reboot starring Robert Pattinson in the title role is finally ready to hit theaters this Friday, March 4.
Set during Bruce Wayne's second year of crimefighting, The Batman finds the masked vigilante uncovering corruption in Gotham City while in pursuit of a serial killer named Edward Nashton a.k.a the Riddler, who preys upon Gotham's elite and taunts the GD with ciphers and riddles. For the movie's enigmatic mastermind, Reeves and Dano took inspiration from the Zodiac Killer, resulting in a take on the comic-book villain that is a far cry from Jim Carrey's over-the-top performance as Edward Nygma in Batman Forever.
In a new profile by THR, Reeves opened up about filming The Batman with Dano, especially one scene which took the actor 200 takes to perfect. The scene in question involves the Riddler talking to Batman via video call. To film the scene, Dano was alone in a room with nothing but an iPhone, while the rest of the cast and crew were on set of a murder scene at Gotham's City Hall. The scene ended up taking an estimated 200 takes, many of them requested by Dano as he delivered variations on the Riddler's mania. Read what Reeves had to say about the scene below:
He goes, "OK, let me try one where I’m off camera and I stick my head in. Let me try one where I’m already sitting there." He’s directing this one-person play on an iPhone. It was the giddiness that really got to me. Calling out the ing time, like he was a game show host. He was so inventive and creative. He’s also very critical of himself.
Dano actually made his directorial debut with the 2018 film Wildlife and, based on Reeves' comments, it sounds some of those skills came in handy while filming a certain scene for The Batman. Even before the Riddler, Dano garnered a reputation for his twisted performances in There Will Be Blood and 12 Years a Slave. But with The Batman, the actor had the chance to channel that unique wickedness into a big budget blockbuster, which is guaranteed to introduce Dano to a more mainstream audience.
While Colin Farrell's Penguin serves as a secondary villain (one that will be getting his own HBO Max spinoff), the film is very much about the psychological showdown between Pattinson and Dano's characters. Early reviews for The Batman began surfacing earlier in the week, with a number of critics lauding it the best Caped Crusader movie since Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. A comic book film is generally only as good as its villains, so a large part of The Batman's positive critical reception is undoubtedly owed to Dano.
Source: THR
