Gotham Creators Talk Batman

For the naysayers, Gotham is a daft idea (A Batman show without Batman!?), so speaking with IGN, creators Danny Cannon, and Bruno Heller explained (once again) what the show is about, and how they envision it to be.

IGN TV: Batman has such a long history. Going into this, does that make it daunting, exciting or both that there's been so many iterations of this character beforehand? Do you ultimately just have to say, "Well, this is our spin on it"?

Danny Cannon: Exactly. It was daunting at first, because you're following three masterpieces. So I settled with the fact that -- what we talked about when we first pitched this was, "20 years before Batman." A world that's starting to see a corrupt city rotting from the inside. It reminded us of New York in the late '70s and early '80s. That was our first meeting, and we kind of spring-boarded off of that. Luckily, that's uncharted territory. Hopefully in the atmospherics of Gotham we created a romantic, gothic, Dickensian kind of world.

Bruno Heller: It's the best work he's ever done – [to Cannon] I hope you don't find that offensive! -- really, because that vision had been in his head that long. That's the great thing about the material; it's in everyone's head. It's the real mythic popular culture. So we're really just tapping into a great stream of good stuff. So yeah, it's daunting, but it's also nothing but gold that dig you up when you get into it.

Cannon: Absolutely. It reminds me of a band like The Rolling Stones. Should you never play their songs? That's the world to me. It's that rich. If it were music, it'd be The Rolling Stones. It would be The Beatles. It's that great a franchise. I just hope we play their songs well.

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IGN: For both of you, were there certain Batman stories -- whether from the comic books or other interpretations -- that were big influences going into this?

Cannon: You know, I read everything, and you reach that point where you have to make it your own. DC were very supportive in that too, because they know when they've done things badly and when they've done things well. So far, what they've done well has just far outweighed, but you have to make these things your own. At some point, you have to plunge in and go, "All right, hate me or... hate me. [Laughs] I've got to make this my own."

Heller: My take on it is it's a bit like Greek mythology. There's a thousand stories. They all contradict themselves to a degree, but that's the beauty of it -- telling stories about characters that are larger than any one story. So that makes it much easier.

Gotham stars, Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Zabryna Guevara, Sean Pertwee, Jada Pinkett Smith, Robin Lord Taylor, Erin Richards, Drew Powell, David Mazouz, Camren Bicondova, Corey Michael Smith, Carol Kane, and Kyle Massey.

Source - IGN

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