On June 15, 2005, director Christopher Nolan breathed new life into the Batman franchise with Batman Begins.
Eight years earlier, the Batman franchise was all but finished in Hollywood, thanks to the dismal response to Batman & Robin. Nolan signed on to direct the cinematic Batman reboot in 2003, citing Richard Donner’s Superman as his inspiration for depicting Batman’s complete origin in live action for the first time while also exploring and developing Bruce Wayne and his supporting cast.
Nolan took another cue from Donner’s film and surrounded Christian Bale’s Batman/Bruce Wayne with an all-star cast that included Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, and Ken Watanabe. While Batman Begins kicked off The Dark Knight Trilogy, it’s been somewhat overshadowed by the two films that followed it. Ten years ago, this film was a revelation that caused the late Roger Ebert to exclaim “Batman Begins is the fifth Batman movie, but the first one to get it right. To get it absolutely right!”
And yet Batman Begins had a very surprising origin story of its own. Its co-screenwriter David S. Goyer initially turned down the film before getting coaxed into joining the project by Nolan. After that, Goyer, Nolan, and Batman Begins production designer, Nathan Crowley, worked out of Nolan’s garage for several months while planning Batman’s big screen comeback.
That backstory is one of several fascinating tales behind the making of Batman Begins. The special features from the Batman Begins Blu-ray have popped up on YouTube as a feature-length documentary that delves into almost everything about the film, including the story development, the casting, the costume creation, the new Batmobile (aka the Tumbler), and much more.
This isn’t an officially-sanctioned Warner Bros. video, and the quality of the uploaded video isn’t great. But the material covered is so compelling that it’s an easy way to spend close to two hours.
Batman fans, what were your favorite parts of Batman Begins? Answer the Batsignal and let us know what you’re thinking in the comment section below!
HT: The Film Stage
