AP2HYC: We’ve already touched on this a bit, but obviously the two characters that you both are playing [Dick Grayson and Bane] have been portrayed on screen before. Do you think your performance is influenced by that or are you just trying to ignore it?
Pete: In the film world, and being specifically about Christopher Nolan’s films, they’ve been so well received and they’re so well done, and he is such a good storyteller and he has such a good element of realism within his storytelling as well. He really went to a lot of effort to create a very realistic Batman character, which could be received well by a very widespread movie-going audience and was going to sell really well. And it did, I don’t think anyone would argue that. When Dark Knight Rises, especially speaking particularly about the Bane character, was released, there were a lot of fanboys who go “He doesn’t look like Bane, he looks like this. And he talks weird.” Come on, it’s film. Just relax, it was well done. And they’re shitting all over this product without really giving credit where credit is due. Incredible film, incredible character, played well, I thought, by Tom Hardy. As far as looks go, they obviously changed things about the character and stuff. But I think for us, we wanted to go for a New 52 type of feel and look, and we also wanted to cater to a lot of the fanboys who feel that this is the way they’re drawn them in the comics, this is the look. It’s not realistic. This is a comic book. I understand what they were doing and I liked it a lot, I loved the film, but for us we wanted a bit more of the comic book type of feel, like you’re looking at a comic book, not “This is something that’s real.” Batman isn’t real, it’s a comic book, and therefore we’re portraying the characters that have been drawn in the comic book.
AP2HYC: You mentioned that you were going for the New 52 look. Is that why you chose to go with the red Nightwing costume instead of the classic blue?
Brady: Yeah, yeah. Which was controversial, but I think a lot of things are gonna be controversial when you do anything Batman related.
Pete: The other thing is, a lot times when things get redone, for example the New 52, a lot of people will just boycott it. They’re like “Well I don’t like it, I like the way it was.” A lot of people don’t like change. [They’ll boycott it] instead of reading it and getting down to the material and saying “Wow, this is really well done.” And changing the look a little bit is miniscule, really, as far as storytelling goes. And I like the New 52 a lot.
Brady: Yeah, it’s great. And, I think we posted it on our Facebook group page, but we actually had Kyle Higgins, who writes the New 52 Nightwings, send a message saying how much he liked the trailer, which was really cool. And I think that people need to understand that characters are going to grow and adapt. If they put a little bit of red in his costume, it’s not the end of the world. I mean, look how many Superman costumes and Batman costumes and Wonder Woman costumes there have been over the years.
Pete: He used to wear fairy boots. I mean, come on. Things change. And I think honestly, that it’s not such a big deal. If a company like DC and Warner Bros is relaunching characters and this is the way they look, then obviously on some level it’s going to be more marketable in the long run to cater to that.
AP2HYC: As long as we’re talking about the costumes, one of the things mentioned on the IndieGoGo site that you’re trying to raise money for is to get the costume to look a bit more armored and less just like spandex.
Brady: Right. And that’s kind of a throw to the New 52 Justice League, and the Arkham City games. That armored look is just a lot more functional.
Pete: Even in Higgins’ Nightwing and [Greg] Capullo and [Scott] Snyder’s Batman, they have like the armored gauntlets, they have these new effective and functional costumes that are like, if these guys are fighting crime, they gotta be armored up. I mean, they’re taking a beating out there. You have to have armor, you have to have these gauntlets that are going to deflect swords and whatever else.
AP2HYC: I also have to say that the Bane costume looked amazing and that the Luchador mask was very much true to how Bane has always looked.
Brady: I think that was important for us too because, especially with The Dark Knight Rises, and again, I’m in the same boat as Pete where I enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises’ Bane, but I felt that it was quite far from the comic book version, so we were pretty intent on having a version of Bane that was very much identical to the comic book version.
Pete: We wanted the tubes and we wanted the arm panel, we wanted the mask and the wrestling boots. He is a wrestler, he’s on steroids, he is very much as he’s drawn. I think that in our trailer, I was really happy with it actually too. I’m glad that you liked it as well because that’s kind of what we’re catering to.
