The first trailer for Matt Reeves' hotly anticipated, Robert Pattinson-starring The Batman dropped way back in the summer of 2020, and it was soundtracked by a blown-out, trailer-fied version of Nirvana's timeless mega-bummer "Something in the Way."
Turns out that song choice means more to the film than one might've thought; in a new interview with Empire, Reeves says that his new version of Bruce Wayne — who does in fact have some lank, '90s-inspired hair — was heavily inspired by Kurt Cobain.
Reeves told Empire:
When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana's "Something in the Way." That's when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we've seen before, there's another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse. So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant's Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalized version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.
He also explains that he cast Pattinson partially because his performance in the Safdie Brothers' Good Time reminded him of Cobain: "In that movie you could really feel his vulnerability and desperation, but you could also feel his power. I thought that was a great mix. He's also got that Kurt Cobain thing, where he looks like a rock star, but you also feel like he could be a recluse."
It didn't seem possible that Batman could get even more dour and emo, but it sounds like Reeves is gonna pull it off. You can read the whole interview here.
Revisit the trailer, and listen to "Something in the Way," below.
Turns out that song choice means more to the film than one might've thought; in a new interview with Empire, Reeves says that his new version of Bruce Wayne — who does in fact have some lank, '90s-inspired hair — was heavily inspired by Kurt Cobain.
Reeves told Empire:
When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana's "Something in the Way." That's when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we've seen before, there's another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse. So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant's Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalized version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.
He also explains that he cast Pattinson partially because his performance in the Safdie Brothers' Good Time reminded him of Cobain: "In that movie you could really feel his vulnerability and desperation, but you could also feel his power. I thought that was a great mix. He's also got that Kurt Cobain thing, where he looks like a rock star, but you also feel like he could be a recluse."
It didn't seem possible that Batman could get even more dour and emo, but it sounds like Reeves is gonna pull it off. You can read the whole interview here.
Revisit the trailer, and listen to "Something in the Way," below.