Robert Pattinson Is ‘The Batman’ In Moody New Matt Reeves Camera Test

Geoff Boucher
·3 min read

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We now have video proof: Robert Pattinson is The Batman. Take a look in the video above at the Twilight Saga star in all of his masked-man menace. The compelling bit of atmospheric superhero cinema arrived today via social media and filmmaker Matt Reeves, the director of The Batman.

The tension in the moody, red-saturated camera test footage is ratcheted up by Michael Giacchino’s piano-driven score which hints of the expected tonal shift in the next Gotham City adventure toward a master-sleuth portrayal of Bruce Wayne’s alter ego. The noir spirit of the movie is expected to bank on the relentless manhunter prowess of “the world’s greatest detective,” as the hero was frequently described in the classic comic book tales that have inspired the Reeves revamping.

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The article added to the name of the film (making it The Batman as opposed to just Batman) is a noteworthy nod to the film’s tonal heritage. The Batman was embraced in the late 1960s and 1970s as the preferred nomenclature in the now-classic comics (by the likes of Neal Adams, Denny O’Neill, and Marshall Rogers) that emphasized the hero as an unstoppable force and a super-conditioned man of adventure who was endlessly resourceful, relentlessly prepared and unrivaled in his cerebral powers.

The camera test was shared by Reeves via Twitter and was met with seismic reaction on social media with a robust majority of it positive. Reeves is best known for the Fox revival of its first great sci-fi franchise with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014 and War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017. He also directed Cloverfield, the 2008 found-footage monster tale, and Let Me In, the atmospheric 2010 remake of the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In.

The Batman arrives in theaters June 25, 2021. The next Warner Bros. installment in the big-screen chronicles of Gotham City’s caped crusader also stars Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, and Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson.

Pattinson, coming off the critical success of the darkly hypnotic The Lighthouse, has upped his gravitas quotient in recent years and (after winning the competition to land the part) is bringing a new chiseled visage to the role that has become one of Hollywood’s signature screen icons.

Adam West portrayed the character on the ABC television series from 1966-1968 and in the tie-in feature film in 1966. Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck have portrayed the Dark Knight from DC Comics in Warner Bros live-action feature films.

Pattinson is familiar with moody and massive Warner Bros franchises — he got his start in one 15 years ago when he portrayed noble young Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He became an international heartthrob, however, as the pale and haunted vampire Edward Cullen in Summit Entertainment’s five Twilight films (2008-2012) that raked in more than $3.3 billion in worldwide box office.

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