The co-screenwriter of 'The Batman' says spending months working with director Matt Reeves on the script was a 'mind-blower'
- Insider chatted with screenwriter Mattson Tomlin, who is riding a wave of success with his script for "Project Power," now a big release on Netflix. He also co-wrote the script for "The Batman."
- Tomlin said the big thing he took away from "The Batman" was working alongside director Matt Reeves on the script.
- "Having that experience, that was the mind-blower," Tomlin said. "Being able to be brought into somebody else's process."
- "The Batman," starring Robert Pattinson in the lead role, opens October 1, 2021.
Screenwriter Mattson Tomlin is certainly having a moment. He's not just the person who thought up the script for the superhero movie "Project Power" that's currently on Netflix, but he is also one of the minds that brought together the latest incarnation of the Batman franchise.
There's very little known (or can be divulged yet) about "The Batman," starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, but Tomlin, who is a co-screenwriter on the movie, did give a small glimpse into the process of writing the script with the film's director, Matt Reeves.
"We were in the same room at a desk together for many months and just going through the process — I'd never written with anyone before — and co-writing it with him, I really do think he's one of our great filmmakers," Tomlin told Insider of Reeves, who is known best for directing "Cloverfield," "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," and "War for the Planet of the Apes."
"Having that experience, that was the mind-blower," Tomlin continued. "Being able to be brought into somebody else's process."
"The Batman" came to life after Ben Affleck stepped down from playing the character (he played Batman in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Suicide Squad," and "Justice League"), which ended his plans to write, direct, and star in a standalone movie.
Reeves came on board and reworked the story to focus on a younger Bruce Wayne/Batman. He cast Pattinson in the role while Zoë Kravitz plays Catwoman, Paul Dano is the Riddler, and Colin Farrell plays the Penguin. The movie is set to come out October 1, 2021.
"Matt and I have a great working relationship but at the same time I'm very happy to do my own thing in my own world," he said.
With "Project Power" being his first major project out in the world and working on "The Batman" giving him major respect in Hollywood, Tomlin is using that momentum to get more work greenlit. He recently sold a sci-fi spec script to Paramount and is working with the directors of "Project Power," Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, on a movie adaptation of the video game character Mega Man.
But back to "The Batman." Can Tomlin give us anything about the movie? How about Colin Farrell as Penguin? What is he bringing to that iconic villain in this movie?
"All I can say is I've always loved Colin Farrell and now I love him even more," Tomlin said slyly.
Well, we tried.