Matt Reeves 'Wasn't Feeling' A '1970s Cop Show' About Gotham City

By Andrew Sanford | TV | September 25, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | September 25, 2024 |

Studios will do whatever they can to cash in on the “superhero craze” that still has its grip on film, television, and children’s diaper boxes (don’t even get me started). The need to jump on this trend is so strong that executives have been greenlighting shows and movies about worlds occupied by your favorite heroes, but without having those heroes present. The two biggest superheroes to fall victim to this fad are Batman and Spider-Man.

Spider-Man’s world has been plundered for several years. Some of that has been successful, with the spin-off, Venom, stretching its popularity into a trilogy. Other films like Morbius and Madame Web have … not done as well. Batman’s world has been up for grabs for even longer. Gotham, a show about Batman’s home city, premiered ten years ago and did everything in its power to evoke Batman without using Batman (until right at the end).
It turns out that the FOX show would not be the last attempt to put the Gotham PD front and center.

Some Batman fans are devouring Penguin on Max, a spin-off about Oswald Cobb from The Batman. Before the Cobblepot-less show came to fruition, Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter was developing a different show with writer/director Matt Reeves. “The idea was that we were going to do a 1970s cop show— something that felt like Sidney Lumet’s 1981 crime and police drama ‘Prince of the City,’ but in the Gotham City Police Department,” Winter explained on the “Bingeworthy” podcast. “It was going to have that [’70s] feel. It was going to be a present-day cop who is like a third-generation Gotham City cop and Gotham City was largely corrupt. And this is the guy we meet in the present day who’s realizing that he’s kind of on the wrong side. The Batman was somebody that lived in that world, but you never really saw him. And it was really all about the police department and sort of this guy.”

The show eventually fell apart as Winter claims that Reeves “wasn’t feeling it.” Regardless, there are no hard feelings on Winter’s end. “That’s great, good for them,” Winter noted about Penguin’s success. “Like I said, you know, it was Matt’s idea originally, and, you know, more power to [him]. Sometimes, you’re in sync creatively; sometimes, you’re not. Or you get off on the wrong foot thinking, ‘Oh, we should do this but you know what, this is just not really working.’ Also, because there was Gotham, the show Gotham certainly took place in the Gotham City Police Department. [It] kind of stepped on the toes of our idea a little bit, even though ours was going to be totally very different. I think ‘Penguin’ is great. I think they did a great job.”

Reeves has explained recently that shows about the Gotham PD and Arkham Asylum are still in development. He intends to build out the universe surrounding Robert Pattinson’s Batman. He also wants to make a second and third Batman movie! At the same time, James Gunn is building out his own DCU, which also includes connected television shows. At a certain point, one will have to stop. Terence Winter may have avoided a big old mess! At least now he’s working on *checks notes* a Taylor Sheridan show! … Oh no.