While I’m seemingly in the minority camp of being very interested in seeing how Gotham plays out this fall since I can see a lot of interesting story potential here, series showrunner Bruno Heller is not doing himself any good here with some of the things he talks about in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. The big one that will strike ire is this one:
EW: My assumption has been that the reason this TV show can be done — rights-wise — is because Batman himself is not in it. That way, it doesn’t overlap with any films. Is that correct?
BRUNO HELLER: Certainly from Warner Bros. and DC’s business point of view, that’s why it can be done. For me, if they said, “Do Batman,” I would have said, “No.” I would have not been interested at all. I don’t think Batman works very well on TV — to have people behind masks. Frankly, all those superhero stories I’ve seen, I always love them until they get into the costume. And then it’s, “Oh, okay, they’ve ascended, they’ve stopped becoming humans.” It’s their apotheosis. They go to heaven and they’re Superman. There have been so many great versions of it. This is a version of something else entirely.
When you say right from the get go that you have a problem with costumes and that you don’t think it works well on TV, you’re missing a lot of what’s actually going on these days and that places you in the camp of showrunners past that “didn’t get it.” While we won’t hold Arrow up as the end all be all, it’s definitely shown that it can be done well and we see it done well theatrically as well. Gotham does play to the strength of no costumes so I’m confident he can bring really good character stories there and a look at the city, which is what I want, but what he says here won’t earn him fans among the hardcore fans.
BRUNO HELLER: The first thing was starting with Jim Gordon, who is the most human and real and normal person in the DC pantheon. What would the city of Gotham look like to a young rookie cop coming into this world? And that’s where we calibrated. This is a world that’s going to become that familiar world of Batman, but it’s not there yet. It’s an embryo. A lot of the work was reverse engineering the story to look at what these characters were like when they younger. Penguin, for instance, is not a powerful gang leader, he’s a gofer for a gangster. It’s about giving the world room to grow, but at the same time giving the fun and pleasure and drama of that heightened world. One of the great things about the Batman world is [the characters] have no super powers. Nobody flies or leaps over buildings. You start with psychology and that’s where we build from.
This is what I find will work for me and why I’m keen on it in seeing some of the street level side of things and the tastes of what’s to come but with a different kind of payoff before all of it. Of course, the question comes up about the most iconic of Batman mythos characters and here he seems like he’s treading carefully but it comes off as rather flippant.
EW:You mentioned The Killing Joke. So you’ll bring in The Joker?
BRUNO HELLER:He’s the crown jewel of the Batman villains. He will be brought in with great care and a lot of thought.
EW: Some feel Heath Ledger’s performance was so iconic it would be a mistake to try to do that character again so soon.
BRUNO HELLER: I’ve written scenes for Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. So while that is a serious and valid note, you can’t get into doing this without going there. That was a wonderful performance and — apart from everything else — wonderful make-up. And we should try to live up to that. It will be a different character. It’s certainly going to be more Heath Ledger than Cesar Romero. But like I say, all of these people are real people with feelings and emotions and history and parents. I just build from that.
The series stars Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Mazouz, Robin Lord Taylor, Camren Bicondova, Erin Richards, Sean Pertwee as Zabryna Guevara.
Plot concept: Growing up in Gotham City’s surrounding suburbs, JAMES GORDON (Ben McKenzie, “Southland,” “The O.C.”) romanticized the city as a glamorous and exciting metropolis where his late father once served as a successful district attorney. Now, two weeks into his new job as a Gotham City detective and engaged to his beloved fiancée, BARBARA KEAN (Erin Richards, “Open Grave,” “Breaking In”), Gordon is living his dream – even as he hopes to restore the city back to the pure version he remembers it was as a kid.
Brave, honest and ready to prove himself, the newly-minted detective is partnered with the brash, but shrewd police legend HARVEY BULLOCK (Donal Logue, “Sons of Anarchy,” “Terriers,” “Vikings,” “Copper”), as the two stumble upon the city’s highest-profile case ever: the murder of local billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne. At the scene of the crime, Gordon meets the sole survivor: the Waynes’ hauntingly intense 12-year-old son, BRUCE (David Mazouz, “Touch”), toward whom the young detective feels an inexplicable kinship. Moved by the boy’s profound loss, Gordon vows to catch the killer.
[Source: EW]