Having enjoyed enormous success with Joker, which became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time upon release in 2019 with over a billion dollars in box office receipts, Warner Bros. and DC Films have been open to venturing beyond the PG-13 realm with their superhero offerings, with both Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad going down the same R-rated route.
However, it seems the buck stops with Batman, as director Matt Reeves has revealed that Warner’s only demand going in to The Batman was for the filmmaker to deliver a PG-13 certificate.
“I have to say, this movie is exactly the movie I wanted it to be, and they have supported me all the way through it,” Reeves told Collider. “One thing they did do, which was my intention from the beginning, was they said, ‘Look, it’s important to us that the movie be PG-13. It’s a Batman movie, and we’re investing so much in it. And I was like, ‘Well, in the Apes movies, I tried to sort of find that balance as well.’ I felt like in that same way, I knew that we could push the boundaries of what you could do in a PG-13 movie and still deliver everything I wanted to do.”
Reeves certainly seems to have achieved his aim, as The Batman has earned a 15 certificate from the British Board of Film Classification for “strong threat [and] violence”, whereas the majority of PG-13 movies translate to a 12A/12 here in the UK.
Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman (Robert Pattinson), striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. With only a few trusted allies—Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright)—amongst the city’s corrupt network of officials and high-profile figures, the lone vigilante has established himself as the sole embodiment of vengeance amongst his fellow citizens.
When a killer targets Gotham’s elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World’s Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle/aka Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Oswald Cobblepot/aka the Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Edward Nashton/aka the Riddler (Paul Dano). As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator’s plans becomes clear, Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.
The Batman sees Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse) donning the cape and cowl as Bruce Wayne/Batman alongside Zoe Kravitz (Big Little Lies) as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Colin Farrell (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Paul Dano (Escape at Dannemora) as Edward Nashton/The Riddler, Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Jim Gordon, Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Alfred Pennyworth, John Turturro (The Big Lebowski) as Carmine Falcone, Alex Ferns (Chernobyl) as Commissioner Pete Savage, Con O’Neill (Ordinary Lies) as Chief Mackenzie Bock, Peter Sarsgaard (The Killing) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson and Jayme Lawson (Farewell Amor) as Bella Real.
The Batman is set for release on March 4th.
