They call it the garage gang.
All the planning for The Batman Trilogy and beyond started in Christopher Nolan’s garage. And what happened in the garage, stayed in the garage. Anyone who wanted to see the script — studio heads, producers, anyone — had to come in person. (The exception to this was Sir Michael Caine, who asked to see a script and had Nolan show up at his house, hand him the script, and sit there and wait while he read it to decide if he wanted to be in the series or not.)
The team works together so flawlessly that Nolan, much like other director-producers, returned to them when he wanted to make more movies. This is another reason it is easy to trace consistent styles across Nolan’s movies –his team stayed the same:
- Emma Thomas: Producer
Christopher Nolan’s wife and producing partner:
“The garage was fantastic,” she said. “It was just brilliant having David Goyer in one room working on the script, while Nathan [Crowley] was in another room coming up with the look of the film. There was a synergy having them both in the same place, with Chris flitting between the two. It advanced our progress considerably. It felt very normal for us, as well, because that’s how we’d always worked…so this felt like a very organic, natural thing for us. The only difference was that instead of a low-budget, independent film, we were doing Batman.
- Chuck Roven: Producer
“I call him a producer-spoiler,” said producer Chuck Roven. “It’s very rare that you work with a director who has a vision and then does everything to execute that vision the way he’s told you he’s going to. Chris always did what he said he was going to do—or killed himself trying to do with he said he was going to do.”
- David S. Goyer: Screenplay and Story
When Nolan first contacted Goyer about working on Batman Begins, he was in the midst of his first feature-film directing assignment, Blade: Trinity and very busy. Nolan persisted, their visions coincided, and Goyer said yes. He worked on Batman Begins in the mornings and his own film in the evenings until it finished. A lasting relationship was formed, and Goyer helped Nolan storyboard the rest of the trilogy and then went on to work on Man of Steel.
- Jonathan “Jonah”Nolan: Screenwriter
Christopher Nolan’s brother and co-screenwriter. The brothers worked together on Following, Memento, The Prestige, and all the Batman movies. Seven drafts into Batman Begins, Jonathan joined as an extra brain on task. Most of Nolan’s work would not have been possible without him; it is important to credit him where credit is due. Way to go, Jonah!
- Wally Pfister: Cinematographer
Pfister actually worked with Nolan on every one of his filmed minus Following. Their minds work together, and it is his eye that provided some of the stunning camera angles and shots that made Batman special (see: rooftop flying scene, car flip, hospital explosion).
- Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard: Composer
The trilogy was the first time Zimmer and Howard had worked together. Nolan gave them free-reign, working the music into the story as it was being written rather than waiting for a finished product to slap it onto. The result was happy composers with more freedom than is usually allowed them, and seamless connections between the music and story.
“I believe a composer has the duty to inspire his director—not just vice versa,” said Zimmer. “The more toys I could give him to play with at an early stage, the better it would be for him.”
- Lindy Hemming: Costume Designer
Hemming worked on all three Batman films, faced with finding the balance between comic-book brightness and the realistic and edgy world that Nolan had created. She was responsible for redesigning the bat suit as well as the Joker’s crazy makeup so that it wasn’t too crazy. Hemming also credited her garage gang days for their help:
“I became an honorary member of the “garage gang” and I loved it,” Hemming said. “It was wonderful to have those early months before it actually kicked into high gear. Later, when Chris was preoccupied with other things, I could still keep working on ideas I’d gleaned educing that development time. Even if things changed later, I still had that basic ‘I remember what we talked about from the garage, which was underneath everything.’
- Richard King : Sound Designer
Nolan prefers filming on-set dialogue rather than using ADR, so King had to work with him on the first day of shooting till the end. He was responsible for things like mixing out the natural sounds of outdoor shoots and making sure all the fake weapons sounded like real weapons.
“He has the best ears of anyone I’ve ever met,” said King of Nolan. “He will hear something in the mix that nobody else hears –and then when we isolate the sound, we find that he was right. He’s like that with everything, really.”
- Nathan Crowley: Production Designer
Crowley was in charge of designing the new aesthetic for the trilogy: he came up with the Batmobile “tank” design, weapons design, Batpod, Gotham’s look and more. He had to balance the old, familiar Gotham feel with a newer look, something that reboots often fail at doing. I would argue that his contribution to the dark but sharp sets added much of Gotham’s magic to Nolan’s series. His work is incredible, and he’s also worked with Nolan on five films. (Remember that Nolan has only directed 10 films, and and this is a lot more impressive)
[All information for this post came from the fantastic book The Art And Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy by Jody Duncan Jesser and Janine Pourroy. I highly recommend it; it taught me most of what I know about Nolan. If you’re interested in learning more about his team, this is where you should start!]
Are You Watching Closely? 