Ben Affleck's Batman Was The Reason Hans Zimmer Gave Up Scoring Superhero Movies
About a year ago, after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out, composer Hans Zimmer announced that he was retiring from scoring superhero films. In a new interview with Inverse, he clarifies exactly why he made that decision, and it has to do with Ben Affleck's portrayal of Batman.
It just did my brain in to have written Christian Bale as Batman, and suddenly it’s Ben Affleck [in Batman v Superman]. And it felt like I was betraying everything Christian had done. So there’s a certain amount of loyalty attached to those movies, as well.
"I spent months trying to come up with something for Ben. The Batman that I know and the one I learned is the one that Christian did, and Ben plays it differently. And I can’t quite shake that off. For me, the Christian Bale character was always completely unresolved. It was always about that moment at the beginning of the first movie, where he sees his parents getting killed. It was basically arrested development. The Ben character is more middle-aged; he seems to be grumpy as hell, but I didn’t feel the pain that I felt in Christian’s performance. And it was that pain that made me interested."
So it seems like Zimmer had a case of Bat-whiplash and couldn't quite wrap his head around a different version of the character. I mean, after spending twelve years creating the aural landscape of one Batman, having to suddenly deal with a new one seems like a reasonable thing to get hung up about. But there was a hint of good news elsewhere in the interview: it seems as if Zimmer isn't 100% done with superhero movies after all. He's just waiting for the right opportunity:
"Ron Howard actually said something very smart to me. He said, 'Don’t say you will never do a superhero movie again. Wait for somebody to turn up with an amazing script for a superhero movie.' And I suppose that’s what I’m saying: 'Can I please have the amazing script?'"
Hear that, Hollywood? He's waiting...all you have to do is give him the goods.