The Exciting Potential of HBO’s Upcoming “Batman” Spinoff Show
Although it’s been in the works for an eternity, Matt Reeves’ Batman film (starring Robert Pattinson as an inexperienced dark knight) is being filmed and is due for release sometime next year. Due to the talent and credentials of all involved, the project has been aglow with positive buzz, even outside of fan circles. Warner Bros. has so much faith in the project that they’ve just given the green light to an HBO spinoff.
We don’t know if Pattinson’s Batman (Battinson, if you will) and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Jim Gordon will make appearances. All we’ve got so far is that it’s a police procedural set in Gotham City headed by Terence Winter and that the series promises to “further examine the film’s exploration of the anatomy of corruption”.
This is exciting for a few reasons!
For one, it looks to take a lot of inspiration from the comic book source material, Gotham Central. Gotham Central was a criminally under-read but acclaimed title about the Gotham City Police Department and its inner workings. Its eye for police work detail, the sincere depiction of the day-to-day grind in a fucking madhouse, and the realistic dialogue leant fascinating credibility to Batman’s unlikely world of costumed maniacs and their preposterous yet tragically consequential crime sprees. The tone of the comic was often downbeat, droll -- laced with the fatalism inherent in film noir; good luck selling that sad and decidedly not exhilarating experience to a mass audience. Naturally, this made the book basically poison to Hollywood money men.
However, this leads us to the second reason to be excited. HBO is famous for its challenging storytelling. They achieved artistic and monetary success with Watchmen last year, which was a sort of quasi-sequel to Alan Moore’s politically charged superhero deconstructionist epic. Unlike the relatively broad 2009 film adaptation actioner, the show was given the leeway to be just as sophisticated and creative as the source material. It’s not difficult to imagine that this Gotham City show could follow in Watchmen’s footsteps.
And finally, Terence Winter. Terence Winter knows his way around crime fiction. From the white-collar crime caper The Wolf of Wall Street to the streets of North Jersey in The Sopranos, Winter’s contribution has been integral. While not a famous name, Terence Winter is perfect for this project. This tells me that HBO is at least serious about giving this a proper go.
I and many other fans of Batman, specifically Gotham Central, don’t want to be let down. Especially after we’re still feeling so raw from the horrendous bastardisation that was Fox’s Gotham. But let’s not forget that Nolan’s Batman Begins followed the infamously terrible Batman & Robin. In this case, let’s hope that history repeats itself.
