Speaking with Nerdist, Reeves heaped praise on the 1992 sequel Batman Returns — “What Tim Burton did was really singular.” — and Catwoman actress Michelle Pfeiffer. (Zoe Kravitz plays Catwoman in Reeves’ The Batman.)
“I love Batman Returns. Michelle Pfeiffer was incredible. I love it, I love it so much. It’s so incredible and she’s so incredible in it. I just think it’s such a beautiful movie,” said Reeves. “I love the Penguin stuff when he’s going down the sewers as the baby. It’s just like, wow. This is the beautiful thing about Tim Burton at his best in that way that he’s got that connection into the fantastical that feels very, very personal.”
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Reeves also singled out Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight as “incredible” and Heath Ledger’s “indelible” interpretation of the Joker. But Reeves particularly responded to film’s “profound” message about the terrifying and nihilistic aspects of human nature that Ledger’s Joker represents.
For his own Batman film, which is currently shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, Reeves loves the idea of exploring a Caped Crusader who’s “not yet fully formed. Where there’s something to do in this context with who that guy would be in this world today, and to ground him in all of these broken ways. Because at the end of the day, this guy is doing all of this to deal with trauma in his past.”
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For more on Reeves’ The Batman, learn what composer Michael Giacchino had to say about scoring the film, trace the origins of the new Batmobile, and what Zoe Kravitz had to say about new Batman Robert Pattinson.