Director Matt Reeves has confirmed that in addition to the 'noir' take of DC Comics' "Batman: The Long Halloween", the main inspiration for his upcoming live-action feature "The Batman", is also based on writer/illustrator Darwyn Cooke's DC Comics graphic novel title "Batman: Ego" (2000):
"...'Batman' blames himself for the killing of a family whose father was a henchman of the 'Joker'. Racked with guilt and losing large amounts of blood he returns to the 'Batcave' where 'Bruce Wayne' (?!) confronts Batman.
" The two argue about who he really is, what his purpose is, what methods he should be using to put an end to crime and his true motivation for doing so..."
"I wanted to get into the mindset of the character, and I wanted to think of the psychology," said Reeves.
"For me, I think one of the cool deep dive ones was 'Ego'. He's confronting the beast that is 'Batman' and it's that kind of duality.
"There's a lot in what it's trying to do in the story about him confronting the shadow side of himself and the degree to which you have self knowledge.
"You're able to understand his motivations...and why he's doing all of these things for the reasons that he thinks is right and that have a heroic sort of grounding in them.
"There's also many things that are driven by the parts of himself he doesn't yet know, and so I would say that that kind of sort of psychological union, that sort of version is very much connected to the vision..."
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