By Amassing billions in box office takings and becoming the only superhero franchise to win an acting Oscar, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is beloved by both comic book fans and those who have no knowledge of the genre.
In a live interview at Cannes Film Festival this weekend ahead of a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Nolan spoke about the trilogy which he described as being more defined by its villains than heroes.
The director revealed every film in the trio belongs to a different genre, with Batman Begins as a straightforward superhero origin story which was planned as a standalone film.
“So the villain, Ra’s al Ghul, is a mentor turned enemy.” Nolan said.
“The Dark Knight for me was always a crime drama in the mould of a Michael Mann film. The Joker was a terrorist, an agent of chaos set loose,” he added.
The finale, The Dark Knight Rises, he saw as “this historical epic. Bane as a militarist foe helped that.”
The Inception and Dunkirk director also discussed the similarities between Batman and James Bond.
“Bruce Wayne doesn’t have any superpowers other than extraordinary wealth,” he said.
“But, really, he’s just someone who does a lot of push-ups. In that sense, he’s very relatable and human. I think that’s why I’ve gravitated towards Batman, because these are stories that are operatic, and appealing in their larger than life nature. But they’re based on very relatable human beings, and there’s a very fascinating, very primal figure at their heart.”
“We mercilessly pillaged from the James Bond films for certain aspects,” he admitted, admitting that Gotham’s ingenious gadget creator Lucius Fox is much like Q. “But I think if I made my version of James Bond, Inception is far more guilty of that than The Dark Knight.”
