Jake Gyllenhaal almost was Christopher Nolan’s Batman
On the other hand, the director did not intend to hire Leonardo DiCaprio to play The Riddler.
In September 2023, David S. Goyer was interviewed by Josh Horowitz in the podcast HAPPY SAD Confusedand he took advantage of this discussion to return to his whole career as a screenwriter, and to confirm or deny certain rumors linked to his superhero films. Detailing in particular that by seeing the mad success of the MCU fromAvengers In 2012, competitors from DC/Warner Bros wanted at all costs build their own franchise around Zack Snyder, the director of Man of Steelhe also revealed that David Fincher had been approached to make a Black For the studio.
During this exchange, the scriptwriter of the trilogy Dark Knight,, From Christopher Nolan, obviously returns to this saga, confirming for example that Jake Gyllenhaal was well at the top of the list to play Bruce Wayne/Batman. His name had run in the Hollywood press in the early 2000s, and Goyer indicates that he did not come out of nowhere. Information confirmed since the actor American, who delivered his version of the facts in the press: last March, Jake even claimed to have always Very want to play Batman in the cinema.
“There are all kinds of factors that come into account (when you miss a cast), explained the actor. Inexplicable things, and if you stop too long on it, it’s not healthy. I said to myself: ‘Look how far you have gone! Go ahead, continue. ‘ This is what I felt the day Christopher Nolan called me. I said to myself: ‘I have just been personally warned by the director, it’s cool. I went far enough. I went from: ‘They are not sure about me’ has ‘He calls me to tell me what he would have thought of me in this film’. So I have to continue. I have to persevere. ‘“”
We leave their words to wait until the return of Batman Begins on TMC.
Jake Gyllenhaal was flattered that Christopher Nolan calls him when he missed the role of Batman
Like Cillian Murphywho spent an audition with the filmmaker for the main role of the saga before the latter ultimately hired him to play Jonathan Crane/L’Epouvantail, Jake Gyllenhaal participated in the casting of Batman Begins. He was not selected, but a few years later, one of his closest friends, Heath Ledger, was chosen to interpret Batman’s great opponent, the Joker, for this same trilogy. The big villain of The Dark Knight should have returned later, but the premature death of his interpreter forced Nolan to upset his plans.
The screenwriter says that after this casting phase, he himself has “Take the side of Gyllenhaal”but that he does not regret that Christian Bale was chosen. “I mean: Gyllenhaal is incredible, Christian Bale is incredible. At that time, how to know which is the right one?”, he explains about this Cornelian choice. The show’s presenter then asked him if there are images of the hearing of the actor Donnie Darko and Secret of Brokeback Mountain In Batman costume. “I believe, yes”, he replies from the tac to the tac.
Always about the trilogy, Goyer also details that other actors were in the running to play Ra’s Al Ghul, Bruce Wayne’s mentor who is actually being his enemy: “I voted for Liam Neeson because he was a little older than the others (which he does not name). It stuck better to the paternal relationship with Bruce, in the shadow of his own disappeared father. “
Is it for this character that Robert Downey Jr. had been mentioned for a time ? Rather leaning him for the epouvantail, as he said in February 2024, having fun of his meeting with Chris Nolan, who ended up directing him in Oppenheimer – A work that earned him the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role, moreover:
“I’m almost sure it was for the role of the epouvantail. I remember that I had met him around a tea, and that he did not seem to believe in this interview much. He was very polite and everything, but you see when you chat with someone and feel that it will go nowhere? I felt exactly that. “
Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan, gathered at the preview of Inception in 2010, with Cillian Murphy and Elliot Page.
David S. Goyer finally returns to a long-standing rumor: is it true that Nolan wanted Caster Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of the Riddler (the mystery man) in The Dark Knight Rises ? He replies that it was in fact a producer of the Warner Bros who suggested his name to him during the premiere of The Dark Knight, In 2008, but that he replied: “This is not this way that we work.” He then details that in his “Creation process”Nolan refuses to build his films around their villain, and suggests that no offer has been made to Leo, which will run a little later in Inception (released in the cinema in 2010) for the same director.
If the Heath Ledger joker is one of the strengths of The Dark Knight, his film was not built only around him, says Goyer in this regard: “Christopher Nolan considers that it is not an adult way to tell a story. He prefers the naturalistic approach: ask what global story he would like to narrate, how he will explore him thematically with the character of Bruce, then only after He chooses a villain that sticks to this story. “
Christian Bale: “Batman is a dangerous individual”
Finally note about Jake Gyllenhaal in Batman that this rumor ran again in 2017, when Warner was looking for Ben Affleck’s successor For a solo film. If it was ultimately Robert Pattinson who was chosen to The Batmanthere was a time to hire Heath Ledger’s best friend for this role. Gyllenhaal signed for a super-production shortly after: he played the opponent of Spider-Man, Mysterio, in Far from Homereleased in 2019 in the cinema.
Spider-Man Far from Home: why Jake Gyllenhaal agreed to play in a Marvel movie