So who's the man behind the mask?
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"Batman Begins" promises a fresh look to one of the world's most intriguing superheroes. Will the mega-production live up to its hype? Sudhish Kamath
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THE DARK KNIGHT: In Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins," the hero who is human and flawed is driven by negative impulses
When the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman dropped in at a theatre near you a few seasons ago, you could see him. The REAL him, that is. You met the teenager Peter Parker, with the problems anyone his age would have. A superhero who realised what a huge responsibility it was to don the role. The film and the sequel turned out to be huge hits and were critically acclaimed too.
Starting June 17, you will, if the creators of "Batman Begins" are to be believed, for the first time ever, meet the REAL Bruce Wayne. For the first time, find out what made Batman. Not in the stylised comic book format, but through a realistic depiction.
Barring the Tim Burton versions ("Batman" and "Batman Returns") starring Michael Keaton, none of the other Batman movies really had much of an impact. But while Burton's versions were highly stylised, with colourful villains stealing the scene from Batman himself, the latest from Warner Bros, "Batman Begins" directed by Christopher Nolan hopes to do justice to the face behind the mask.
New beginning
The latest Batman film has nothing to do with any of the other films made on the superhero. It's a whole new beginning, a fresh look at one of the most intriguing superheroes ever.
As screenwriter David S.Goyer, who had "always dreamed about doing a Batman film," has said: "It's absolutely the Batman film that I wish I would've seen when I was a kid. It's everything I always wanted to see in a Batman movie." And early reviews seem to indicate that the film does live up to the hype. An Internet Movie Database reviewer writes: "I must say that before seeing the film, I felt in my heart this is the `Batman' film we've been waiting for." That's probably because the makers clearly wanted to do something refreshingly radical with Batman.
They had approached masters like David Fincher, Clint Eastwood and Wolfgang Petersen and even rejected a Frank Miller script to be directed by Darren Aronofsky, before actually zeroing in on Chris Nolan and getting Goyer to fill in the blanks of the Batman story — the part that has never ever been told. "What's always been fascinating about Batman is that he is a hero driven by quite negative impulses," says Christopher Nolan. "Batman is human, he's flawed. But he's someone who has taken these very powerful, self-destructive emotions and made something positive from them."
Back story
Christian Bale ( Batman) said during a press conference in San Francisco: "You had to get to a point where the audience would be drawn in enough to believe that this guy has gone through so much pain and anger, and then we have a really nice back story about how he creates the Batman. And also, there's a very nice practical back story to every gadget, and to the Batsuit... Everything is explained in the movie."
So the creators actually designed a Batmobile that can cruise zero to 60 miles in six seconds, an elaborate Gotham city modelled as an `exaggeration of New York City' (says Nolan) and Chicago (says Caine) and the slums of Kowloon, Hong Kong, with licence plates based on Illinois State plates, to lend it a touch of the real world people are acquainted with.
Tom Cruise seems to have loved the film, according to girlfriend Katie Holmes, who plays Rachel Dawes, Batman's childhood friend. Rachel, according to the story, "grew up with Bruce, she grew up in that house, her Mom was a servant."
Michael Caine, who plays Alfred Pennyworth, the butler and father figure to Batman, did his own back story. "I wanted to be the toughest butler you've ever seen, not the normal English, suave butler. And so I made him a SAS Sergeant, which is a very, very tough British army unit."
The bad guys? Screenwriter Goyer went in for Ra's Al Ghul and Scarecrow as the villains for what could be the beginning of a new series of Batman films.
Cillian Murphy, who had also auditioned for Batman is said to have impressed Chris Nolan so much, that the director cast him as Scarecrow.
With an exciting cast (including Michael Caine as Alfred, Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, Katie Holmes as Rachel, Gary Oldman as Lt. Gordon, Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe as Ra's Al Ghul and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox), speculation abound on sequels, an unprecedented marketing expense of 100 million dollars and rave reviews. The Dark Knight is here. And, it looks like he's here to stay.
TRIVIA
Batman made his debut in Detective Comics #27 (May, 1939 issue).
Batman is referred to variously as the Dark Knight, Caped Crusader, Masked Manhunter and the World's Greatest Detective.
Batman ?lms include "Batman" (1966) starring Adam West, Batman (1989) and "Batman Returns" (1992) starring Michael Keaton, "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" (1993), "Batman Forever" (1995) starring Val Kilmer, "Batman and Robin" (1997) starring George Clooney.
The Batmobile in "Batman Begins" is equipped with a 5.7 liter, 350 cubic inch, 340 horsepower engine with approximately 400 pounds of torque.
A total of eight Batmobiles were created for the production.
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