Warner Bros. and DC announced a further extension to its DECU movie universe back in February, with word that The Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay would be tackling a Nightwing film. Now he's offering up a few more details about his plans.
Talking with Collider while out promoting The Lego Ninjago Movie(he produced it), McKay mentions his history with the character and the opportunities it provides for stories. "I’m a big comic book fan, and being able to do the story of Nightwing, to do a Dick Grayson story, which is a character that every single person in the world knows, but has never really had a lot of screen time," he says. "They make a billion Spider-Man movies and a lot of Batman movies, and they’ve tried The Hulk. When they were making the Tim Burton movies, they were always like, 'Oh, maybe we’ll do Robin in this now. Maybe we’ll save Robin for Returns. Nope, we’ll save it for the next one.' With Christopher Nolan, people were like, 'Is he gonna do Robin?' When they made Batman v Superman, they were talking about it. I’m a big fan of underdog stories, and he is one of the biggest underdog stories in comics. And he’s a character that I grew up with. I like the arc."
He's also got plans for what his take will entail. "It’s gonna be a fucking badass action movie with a lot of heart and emotion. It’s gonna be a crazy, fun ride. Whoever gets cast as Nightwing, and any of the other actors around, are gonna go through a fucking boot camp experience because it’s gonna be a lot. I’m not gonna do a lot of CG. It’s gonna be all real shit. It’s gonna be real stunt work, and they’re gonna need to do all of the stuff on camera and do it credibly.
"For the cast and the crew, it’s gonna be a visceral experience, and for the audience. It’s not gonna be like a lot of these movies where there’s a lot of CG and flying, and things like that. Everything he does is gonna have to be real. His superpower is being really fucking good, as a human being, at fighting and gymnastics and shit like that, so you’re gonna see that on screen. It’s gonna be fun!"
Obviously, given that that the movie is at such an early age, there's no mention of when it might come out. The next DECU release is Justice League, landing 17 November.
The Lego Batman Movie's Chris McKay To Make A Live-Action Nightwing Film