They Say He Drinks Blood: The Rumours and Speculation Thread

[SwordOfMorning]

IDK, I understand there's weird LARPing like Bohemian Grove but I feel like the mundane scumbaggery of The Batman's portrait of opportunistic corruption is much more compelling and real feeling than The Court. A "grounded" Court just feels like you're one step away from having Batman beat up Adrenochrome peddlers.

 

[Invader Joker]

Another thing with the Court: God I can only imagine the type of sets that Chinlund could build around them and the way they'd play into the history of the architecture of this Gotham and all the ways they can help to flesh out even more the worldbuilding and all the cool stuff seen in the production design of the first movie. Also what Greig and Matt could do with it visually in terms of all the film inspirations they can draw from. From a visual and design standpoint they're absolutely perfect for doubling down on a lot of the stuff that made the first movie so good.

IDK, I understand there's weird LARPing like Bohemian Grove but I feel like the mundane scumbaggery of The Batman's portrait of opportunistic corruption is much more compelling and real feeling than The Court. A "grounded" Court just feels like you're one step away from having Batman beat up Adrenochrome peddlers.

I mean... you can just say that the Court is part weird LARPing as well, that's how I think would be the best way to interpret them. Narcissistic self-absorbed rich people that wear disguises trying to present their greed as something more spiritual than what it actually is, which I feel is also the perfect way to contrast Bruce who uses a goofy disguise of his own.

And let's not act like real life rich people aren't this creepy/sleezy in extremely coordinated ways either. I mean, there is a very very high profile case of two billionaires that connected a ridiculously shady and creepy group of sickos for insanely perverted stuff. There's definitely more to real life billionaires than just "mundane scumbaggery", and even there I wouldn't even say that the scumbaggery in The Batman was /that/ mundane either, it was just mob-based.

 

[Invader Joker]

Just imagining this maze designed by James Chinlund and shot by Greig Fraser 🤤🥴
The performance Pattinson would give too, good lord.

 

[Eddie Dean]

I cannot imagine that fitting into the template of the first movie in terms of style or tone.

 

[Invader Joker]

I cannot imagine that fitting into the template of the first movie in terms of style or tone.

Not saying they should adapt it exactly as is, obviously. Aesthetically there's pretty much no set in the first movie they ripped from the comics. The thing that excites me is how they'd choose to adapt the concept of "creepy maze that was built by a cult hidden right below a city." with the same mentality they used to adapt things like the Batcave, Wayne Tower, the Gotham PD headquarters, or the rest of Gotham in general.

Something they could do that'd be very very cool is something like the catacombs of Paris:

 

[Eddie Dean]

I would NOT want to be trapped down there!

 

[Invader Joker]

One of the biggest strengths of the first movie was by far and away the production design and the cinematography and the way they went about world-building Gotham. Cinematically there is no other villain or story choice that'd give them more material to double down even harder on all of that, especially since a big chunk of the comic storyline was exploring Gotham's architecture and how it related to the history of the city.

 

[Invader Joker]

I will also say that one of Matt's biggest strengths as a director as well is his skill to take all sorts of different cinematic inspirations to then remix into different elements of his own stories, whether it's in the script, or in the cinematography, costume design or production design. And well, in terms of cinematic inspirations he could take for the Court there are /a lot/ of places he can draw from, from the most obvious:

To things like being able to grab the tone and feel of paranoia thrillers, horror films, and things of that nature in a way that'd continue the style of the first movie but also add new and different dimensions to it.

Plus exploring more of Bruce Wayne not only through the things we typically see in other Batman movies but also by him literally infiltrating a cult would also be cool as hell:

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

No Court of Owls.

We don’t need generic secret society #573 in this.

 

[Invader Joker]

No Court of Owls.

We don’t need generic secret society #573 in this.

Robert and Paul disagree and I will keep preaching their gospel until the possibility is taken away from my arms!

 

[BobJM]

Hugo Strange + an original villain

An adaptation of Prey could be interesting:

Set during the early days of Batman's career, he is still struggling to earn the trust of the public and form a working relationship with Captain James Gordon. Meanwhile, Hugo Strange attacks Batman psychologically while working with the Gotham City Police Department's new anti-vigilante task force, contributing to the creation of a brutal new vigilante named Night-Scourge.

Reeves can take all the liberties he wants with Maxwell Cort / Night Scourge—I don’t think there’s any corner of fandom that’s particularly precious about him. Might as well be an original character. Or swap him for any number of would-be vigilantes—like Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael or Lincoln March/Talon.

 

[Invader Joker]

An adaptation of Prey could be interesting:

Set during the early days of Batman's career, he is still struggling to earn the trust of the public and form a working relationship with Captain James Gordon. Meanwhile, Hugo Strange attacks Batman psychologically while working with the Gotham City Police Department's new anti-vigilante task force, contributing to the creation of a brutal new vigilante named Night-Scourge.

Reeves can take all the liberties he wants with Maxwell Cort / Night Scourge—I don’t think there’s any corner of fandom that’s particularly precious about him. Might as well be an original character. Or swap him for any number of would-be vigilantes—like Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael or Lincoln March/Talon.

I weirdly think it might be easy to combine Hugo Strange and Court of Owls into a same story. Would be interested to see that.

 

[WayneMB]

you're getting me back on board with the Court. i was out but i think im back in.

my top 3 wishes right now
Freeze
Hugo Strange/Scarecrow
Court

 

[Boom]

An adaptation of Prey could be interesting:

Set during the early days of Batman's career, he is still struggling to earn the trust of the public and form a working relationship with Captain James Gordon. Meanwhile, Hugo Strange attacks Batman psychologically while working with the Gotham City Police Department's new anti-vigilante task force, contributing to the creation of a brutal new vigilante named Night-Scourge.

Reeves can take all the liberties he wants with Maxwell Cort / Night Scourge—I don’t think there’s any corner of fandom that’s particularly precious about him. Might as well be an original character. Or swap him for any number of would-be vigilantes—like Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael or Lincoln March/Talon.

You had the vision I see.

 

[BobJM]

Oh and I still prefer the name “Jeremiah Arkham” over “Hugo Strange.” If there’s any in-universe story/characters to be amalgamated, it’s those two.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Cast John Lithgow as Arnold Wesker. But the twist at the end is an actual little person the whole time.

 

[BobJM]

You had the vision I see.

Call the villain whatever you want, I’ve wanted Batman to face against someone like Agent Poindexter / Bullseye since Daredevil season 3:

Just some dark mirror version of Batman, goaded by the likes of Hugo Strange or Deacon Blackfire or the Court of Owls. It can really play at bigger themes and still give us some big punch-ups.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

An adaptation of Prey could be interesting:

Set during the early days of Batman's career, he is still struggling to earn the trust of the public and form a working relationship with Captain James Gordon. Meanwhile, Hugo Strange attacks Batman psychologically while working with the Gotham City Police Department's new anti-vigilante task force, contributing to the creation of a brutal new vigilante named Night-Scourge.

Reeves can take all the liberties he wants with Maxwell Cort / Night Scourge—I don’t think there’s any corner of fandom that’s particularly precious about him. Might as well be an original character. Or swap him for any number of would-be vigilantes—like Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael or Lincoln March/Talon.

Pre-production of TDKR era flashbacks.

 

[BobJM]

Pre-production of TDKR era flashbacks.

lol it was a good idea then; it’s a good idea now

 

[Boom]

Pre-production of TDKR era flashbacks.

Good ideas are timeless.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

I mostly find Hugo Strange boring but I love the weird little pervert version of him in Prey.

 

[Frodo]

I mean we still have plenty of speculate even with this rumor being shut down, I really don't get what the downside is. He's talked and debunked the most out of Legacy and even there no one knows what that film is exactly gonna be like yet.

I was personally talking about the fun of the speculation game, regardless of whatever Gunn shots down, or not.

Gunn isn't important to me with regards to the fun of speculating , coming up with theories etc .

The same goes for Kevin Feige ,and speculating , theorizing, or guessing , whatever is going to happen with Spiderman 4 and Secret Wars.

Obviously , they take options potential plot scenarios off the table, when they debunk certain rumors going around.



But alot of the fun I find in speculation isn't just about rumors , but fans theorizing, coming up with what they will happen , etc.

For me , that process and that game is separate and apart from whatever the official line from a studio, or production is.

That's just something as a fan I do , and find fun regardless .

 

[TheSmoothKnight]

Must be the tough for Gunn to get a lot of questions about The Batman Part II while he is trying reboot the whole DCU. Interesting to see what will happen if The Penguin series and The Batman 2 are big hits.

 

[Invader Joker]

Must be the tough for Gunn to get a lot of questions about The Batman Part II while he is trying reboot the whole DCU. Interesting to see what will happen if The Penguin series and The Batman 2 are big hits.

I mean... not much? I'd imagine Reeves would get his Gotham PD spin-off and maybe something else, and then The Batman 3 and it's done.

The real problem tho will be if Legacy flops but The Batman 2 is succesful. Now that'd create a mess.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

I mean... not much? I'd imagine Reeves would get his Gotham PD spin-off and maybe something else, and then The Batman 3 and it's done.

The real problem tho will be if Legacy flops but The Batman 2 is succesful. Now that'd create a mess.

There's almost no world in which Legacy isn't the least successful of the next three DC movies unless its a crazy 10/10 masterpiece with the worlds greatest marketing campaign. So, that's gonna be interesting.