|
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN:
“[This story] has never been told before, and that’s true in a number of different ways. The origin story has never been addressed on screen. It’s never been definitely outlined in the comics either. And what I’ve never seen in superhero movies or comic book movies is a naturalistic, more realistic, grounded tone to the film, so that Batman is an extraordinary figure against a relatively ordinary and recognizable contemporary reality.”
CHRISTOPHER BALE:
“I don’t feel like Batman’s ever really been defined in any portrayal, so I felt like this was an opportunity to finally do that, in regards to the way that Bob Kane originally intended it when he wrote it in 1939. He intended it as being a dark, terrifying and intimidating character. It’s kind of ended up being spoofed. I feel like I had an opportunity to expand and bring something new to it.”
KATIE HOLMES (Rachel Dawes):
“What I liked about my character was her strength – she’s a fighter, she’s independent, and she’s very close to Bruce Wayne, so she’s very honest with him, and they have this great close relationship. She can handle herself, but does need help every now and then, she does need to be saved. I think she’s a great character.”
MICHAEL CAINE (Alfred):
“Because I’d grown up in very big country houses, not because I was of a noble family, my mother was a cook, so I was always backstairs with the butler, so I knew the relationship [Alfred would have with Bruce]. I knew the lines above which a real butler wouldn’t go in familiarity, and I knew the lines along which he wouldn’t go below in dealing with staff, so [Christain and I] met in the middle, and it worked perfectly.”
MORGAN FREEMAN (Lucius Fox) on Tim Burton’s Batman movies:
“The first two movies were real innovative Batman movies. I thought Batman 2 was hilarious. This one we’re getting back to the seriousness of Batman and what Chris Nolan sold was ‘we’re going to tell you who Batman is.’ There are no superpowers except the inventiveness of his mind and his hard-won ability in hand-to-hand combat. In this movie he says, ‘This is how he got all that stuff. This is where it all came from.’”
GARY OLDMAN (Detective Jim Gordon):
“I think Tim Burton’s a visionary. He’s wonderfully talented. But it was a particular type of world that he set up. Gotham was extra-ordinary. I think in Chris’ movie, it’s Batman who his extra-ordinary against a backdrop which feels like a city that you and I could live in today. And it answers the big question that the Joker has, ‘How did he get all those toys?’ I wanted to know where they all came from, and we get to know that now.”
| 
THE CONCEPT:
