How ‘The Batman’ Director Matt Reeves Made a $200 Million Bet on Robert Pattinson’s Darker Knight
variety.comMatt Reeves was terrified. In September 2020, the director had just returned to filming on “The Batman,” Warner Bros.’ latest reboot of the studio’s multibillion-dollar superhero franchise, after a six-month break due to the pandemic.
Reeves had spent lockdown working on the meticulous — and costly — safety protocols needed to complete the film, but just 24 hours after shooting restarted in London, he got the news that his star, Robert Pattinson, had tested positive for COVID-19.“All we did was shoot a day, and already it wasn’t just someone got COVID — Batman got COVID,” Reeves says.To Reeves’ relief, Pattinson’s case was relatively mild, and his health recovered quickly.
But with three-quarters of “The Batman” left to film, the experience had exposed, in rather spectacular fashion, just how precarious the production really was.
The movie had already lost a crew member: Dialect coach Andrew Jack died at 76 in late March 2020, due to the coronavirus, which Reeves is convinced Jack contracted during the first weeks of production. “Because we had no vaccines or anything, I was like, if I go down, we’re not going to finish the movie,” the director says.
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