With Warner Bros. set to introduce a new cinematic Batman in James Gunn burgeoning DC Universe, The Dark Knight Trilogy writer David Goyer has opened up about his experience working with Christopher Nolan on the now-iconic films.
In a sprawling interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Goyer revealed that not even the Nolan films were safe from studio meddling. However, unlike the DC movies that followed, Nolan was able to hold off Warner Bros. executives who constantly tried to put their fingerprints on the Christian Bale films with wild casting ideas like having Leonardo DiCaprio play The Riddler.
“After The Dark Knight, the head of Warner Bros at the premiere said, ‘You got to do the Riddler. Leo as the Riddler. You got to tell Chris, Leo as the Riddler,’” Goyer recalled. “And that’s not the way we work.”
According to Goyer, their approach was always to figure out Batman’s story before anything else. Via Variety:
Goyer said that Nolan and him never picked villains first. Instead they would crack the story of Batman for each film and pick the corresponding villain to match that story. Bane (Tom Hardy) was selected for “The Dark Knight Rises” as the film wrestled with Batman’s age and physicality after the more intellectual warfare of Joker (Heath Ledger) in “The Dark Knight.”
Goyer did reveal one casting decision that he was against, but obviously, worked out for the best. The writer confirmed reports that he pushed for Jake Gyllenhaal over Christian Bale going into Batman Begins. Goyer has no hard feelings though because “Bale is amazing.”
You can watch Goyer talk about The Dark Knight Trilogy at the 13:47 mark below:
(Via Variety)