The Batman director Matt Reeves has revealed that Warner Bros. had just one rule for the movie.
The film stars Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, and sees him go up against the villainous Riddler, played by Paul Dano.
Speaking to Collider, Reeves explained that Warner Bros. had been supportive from the start, but said the studio did have one concern.
"One thing they did do, which was my intention from the beginning, was they said, 'Look, it's important to us that the movie be PG-13. We want to make sure that we can get this – it's a Batman movie, and we're investing so much in it,'" he said. "And I was like, 'Well, in the [Planet of the] Apes movies, I tried to sort of find that balance as well.'"
He continued: "They were meant to be sort of – they were obviously spectacle and grand entertainment, but there was a level of intensity. I felt like in that same way, I knew that we could push the boundaries of what you could do in a PG-13 movie and still deliver everything I wanted to do."
Reviews for the film have been mostly positive, with comparisons made between the movie and Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and David Fincher's Seven. Considering both those films tackle dark subject matter, it's no surprise that The Batman is a boundary-pushing PG-13. The film received its rating for "strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material."
In the UK, though, you’ll have to be 15 and over to see the film, with the British Board of Film Classification signaling "strong threat, violence."
The Batman hits theaters this March 4. In the meantime, check out our guide to all of 2022's upcoming major movie release dates for everything else the year has in store.
