Danny Cannon talks Gotham’s look and story in new series

The man directing the pilot of the Gotham series, Danny Cannon, has been chatting about the tone of the series and what we can expect – or not expect – to see from the new series.

Compared to the two best known looks for the character on film: Tim Burton’s movies (yes, this inspired the animated series) and Nolan’s movies, Cannon says: “The look they ultimately went for is both familiar and unique to the Bat universe – neither the glossy and contemporary world of the Nolan films nor the Gothic wonderland of the Tim Burton films and ‘Arkham’ games. Instead, we’re dropped in rainy, dirty, gritty city with minimal use of modern tech (cell phones are barely used) and the feel isn’t too far off the likes of “Serpico” or “The French Connection”.

“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 1970s and early 1980s. 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.”

On whether or not we’ll see any of the stories from the comics, Cannon seems doubtful: “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.'”

Sounds like Gotham will look more like Seven and have no stories we know… what say you guys? Let us know in the usual ways.