Christian Bale made his name as one of the most iconic pop culture characters after his role in The Dark Knight Trilogy. His electrifying performance accompanied by a revolutionary approach to the superhero by Christopher Nolan gave us one of the best superhero trilogies ever made. But it looks like our American Psycho wanted a bit more as he talked about an R-rated version of the character.
It can’t be denied that even after possessing a gritty tone in the latest iterations of the character, the films never presented the character out of the PG-13 boundary. Although the Nolan movies and Matt Reeves’ The Batman pushed the limit of PG-13, as Christian Bale claimed, they never really explored the private s*xual life of the Caped Crusader in the movies.
What did Christian Bale say about an R-rated Batman?
The Dark Knight Trilogy was a major change to the character of Batman in many ways. Coming out after a disgraced and totally forgettable Batman & Robin, the movie took a very grounded and mature take on Gotham’s savior. But during an interview with Black Film during the release of the first movie Batman Begins, Christian Bale stated that someday he would love to play an R-rated version of the character.
“I think that…I mean not talking completely s*xually, but I do think there is a lot of room for like a R rated Batman”
Bale was largely fascinated by the comic books and graphic novels of the superhero. According to him, the graphic novels explore the private life of the character very well, that the movies don’t. But he also acknowledged that the Batman movies also cater to a younger demographic and it would be “tricky” to pull off such an act- “I think that’s a little bit tricky to broach when you want kids to come see this as well”.
However, he expressed his interest in doing the character in two different cuts so that both sides of the superhero are well-presented to audiences of all ages.
“I think it would be very interesting myself to do maybe one version, which can be both PG and R, two different cuts of it. The graphic novel certainly dove into his private life because it’s fascinating; of course he’s got to do something, he has to do something at some point. I think it could be an interesting storyline to take somewhere.”
Although Christian Bale’s desire is yet to be fulfilled, as admitted by the actor himself, Nolan’s version pushed the boundaries a lot as the superhero is given a more gritty and scarier treatment. He also added how the audiences were so affected by the Joel Schumacher versions that they didn’t even want to believe in such a version of the character until Batman Begins came.
Was Cillian Murphy about to play Batman?
Recently seen in the widely acclaimed Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy is a long-time associate of Christopher Nolan. While Murphy gave an iconic performance as the Scarecrow in The Dark Knight Trilogy, interestingly he also gave a screen test for Batman before landing the role of Dr. Jonathan Crane.
When the Inception filmmaker and the Irish actor spoke about it to Entertainment Weekly, Christopher Nolan stated that both of them were pretty sure that the Peaky Blinders star would not land the role. But there was a unique reason why Nolan wanted Cillian Murphy to screen test as Bruce Wayne. The filmmaker wanted the studio executives to know about the actor’s potential.
“We did two scenes — there was a Bruce Wayne scene and a Batman scene — and I made sure that executives came down and watched what you were doing on set.”
If Christopher Nolan is believed, then his mission was successful as everybody became excited to watch Murphy opposite Christian Bale.
“Everybody was so excited by watching you perform that when I then said to them, ‘Okay, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?’ There was no dissent.”
The Nolan trilogy would forever be remembered among audiences as one of the top-tier superhero trilogies. Although the concluding project got some criticism, it established itself in the hearts of both ardent cinema lovers and fans of the superhero.
The Dark Knight Trilogy can be streamed on Max.
Source: Black Film
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