The Batman Movie Filming Expected To Wrap In March | Screen Rant
Matt Reeves' upcoming solo Caped Crusader film The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, is expected to finally wrap production in March. Reeves took over as director and writer from former Batman Ben Affleck after the star decided to quit the role following personal struggles. Robert Pattinson was hired to take over the role in a movie that Reeves has described as covering the time following Bruce Wayne's first year as Batman, but before he's become established as a major vigilante in Gotham.
Pattinson will become the DC's primary cinematic Batman, even though he's not part of the wider DC Extended Universe. Both Affleck and fellow former Batman Michael Keaton are returning for The Flash, which will introduce the DC multiverse. Production on the movie began on January 27, 2020, a year ago now, but was interrupted in March by the coronavirus pandemic. Production only started again in late summer in the UK, and was again interrupted when Robert Pattinson returned a positive COVID test. Since then, the movie has had no reports of breaks in filming, and was allowed to continue production in the UK despite the current strict lockdown in the nation.
Now, a report from Britain's Screen Daily says that production on The Batman is finally close to wrapping. According to the report, Warner Bros. has confirmed that the movie is on schedule to wrap by March, almost 14 months after production started. This timeline is obviously dependent on the production remaining COVID-free.
Recent on-set positives have been few and far between across the entire industry, so the chances of The Batman staying on schedule are high. That gives the crew a full year to work on post-production ahead of the movie's current release date of March 4, 2022. With the finish line in sight, cast and crew must be looking forward to the completion of production after more than a year on The Batman. That included a long break, but the production must have still felt like a marathon, rivaling the production lengths of movies like Stanley Kubrick's notoriously laborious Eyes Wide Shut, which went on for so long that cast member Nicole Kidman was able to leave the country while on standby, and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
As for the movie's release, hopefully the world will have returned to normal by March 2022, allowing The Batman to get a traditional theater release. If not, as a Warner Bros. movie, it could suffer the same fate as fellow DC film The Suicide Squad in getting a same-day release on HBO Max. That will hopefully not be the case, as The Batman's teaser trailer released by Reeves last year made it clear this is a superhero epic that needs to be seen in a theater.
Source: Screen Daily