‘The Batman’: Director Matt Reeves discusses Alfred Hitchcock influences, Bruce Wayne as a ‘tortured soul’

Matt Reeves‘ work on War for the Planet of the Apes is complete and the promotion will surely reveal more on his vision for the first standalone Batman film starring Ben Affleck: The Batman.

Reeves has been vocal about his influences for the new Apes film: David Lean, Clint Eastwood, and Francis Ford Coppola. Now he points to Alfred Hitchcock, the Master himself for this next film as he told CNET:

“For me, point of view is really important. I want to make sure you are experiencing something from the perspective of the main character in the story. I’m a huge Hitchcock fan — I like the idea of being immersed in that perspective. Movies for me are about empathy. The idea is to make you, the audience, feel what the character feels.”

There hasn’t been a Batman movie that intimate since Batman Begins, in which Bruce Wayne went on a journey, Christopher Nolan compared to a David Lean film.

Nolan’s sequels and casts grew bigger; they were ensemble stories.

As for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, what Bruce Wayne was feeling wasn’t always palpable or understandable, but Ben Affleck still made for a compelling, damaged brute.

Reeves seems ready to bring the closeness from Caesar’s journey to Batman, he even compared the two characters last month.

“What I find so interesting about him as a character is that, as far a superhero goes, he’s not superhuman, he is a person. And he is a tortured soul who is grappling with his past and trying to find a way to be in a world that has a lot that’s wrong with it and trying to find a way to reconcile all of that. That is a really powerful character, in the same way that Caesar is such a powerful character.”

The director added to CNET they’re just getting started on The Batman, which begins production next year and currently does not have a release date, but it very likely arriving in 2019.