The Batman director Matt Reeves: ‘If movie bosses don’t agree with my vision, I’m out’

Batman’s new boss Matt Reeves hates to be told what to do by movie executives.
The man who replaced Ben Affleck as director of The Batman has ripped up the story lines from the actor/filmmaker’s original movie plans and started all over again – because he can’t work with someone else’s vision.
Reeves is hard at work on the new Caped Crusader movie after completing work on War for the Planet of the Apes, which is released in cinemas on Friday (16Jul17), and he tells the Happy Sad Confused Podcast he starts all projects by making sure producers and movie executives are happy to let him get on with his work.
“You have to come to an agreement about what you’re going to do,” he adds. “One thing I never do is I never begrudge anybody, who’s putting down the money for their movie, what it is they want. It’s just, if we don’t want the same thing then I’m not the right filmmaker.
“Look, I respect that it’s your money, and so if at the end of the day you don’t want to do what I want to do, then that’s OK. But then we don’t have to do it. Because what I’m not so good at is doing what somebody else wants me to do – because then I don’t know where my emotional compass is.
“It’s not out of any kind of arrogance, it’s about that’s the only way I know where to put the camera or how to talk to the actors… When I come in, what I say is, ‘Look, first of all, you’re asking me if I’m interested in this franchise. I am. I love this franchise. I’ve loved it since I was a kid. But here’s the way in which I’m interested in it. And if you’re not interested in it in that way, then that’s totally fine’.”
And he admits The Batman’s film bosses had no issues with his clear vision for the project: “They said, ‘Yeah, we’re really interested in that way!'”