In what could be described as complete and utter insanity, it has recently been revealed that ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice‘ director Zach Snyder did originally want to offer Christian Bale a role in the film, though not the role you would expect.
You see, according to a recent interview with FilmInk, Snyder explains that certain Warner Bros executives could simply not grasp the idea that the new films were taking place in an entirely different universe than the Christopher Nolan films, and had repeatedly asked whether or not they could get Christian Bale to return as Batman. In order to thwart that idea and make sure it was understood that this was not the Nolan Universe, it seems Snyder wanted to offer Bale a brand new role, like maybe Wayne’s butler Alfred, just to make it 100% clear that this is not the same Batman that Bale played, and to hammer home the different universe notion to the executives. In Snyder’s own words:
“This is a total and opposite reality from the Chris Nolan movies. It’s another universe, so we couldn’t hire Christian Bale if we wanted to, because he doesn’t exist in our world. Maybe we could hire him to play another part. We did talk about that briefly. I just wanted to hire Christian to play another part to make that obvious. Christian could play, like, Alfred with age makeup. No! Of course not. But you know what I mean. Even people at the studio would say, ‘Who are you getting from the other movies?’ And I was like, ‘Hey, come on guys, let’s all understand, it’s a different world.’ In the Batman universe that Chris Nolan created, Superman would have a hard time existing. That that’s why we did a reboot on the universe, so we could allow these characters to exist together. We needed to do that to have Batman exist in this world.”
What is frustrating here is the idea that the suits at Warner Bros seem to have no idea what is going on in their superhero movies, nor understand the reasoning behind the ‘Batman’ reboot going on with ‘Batman V Superman.’ The fact that Snyder had to go to such lengths to make them understand what was going on is incredible, and that alone makes me incredibly worried about the future of the DCEU. While the Marvel movies are shepherded by executives who know and love the material, basically ensuring continuity and quality are demanded from the top down, it seems like the folks in charge over at Warner Bros have no idea what is going on with these superhero movies (which might explain WB’s track record *cough*GREENLANTERN*cough*), making it an uphill battle for directors like Snyder who are trying to set the universe in motion.
What are your thoughts on Snyder’s story? Could he be exaggerating, or do you truly believe the studio execs did not understand what he was doing? Share your opinions in the comments below!
Source: Collider
