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Christian Bale and Katie Holmes in 'Batman Begins'


Bale as the driven man behind the mask.

Batman isn't funny anymore.
The first thing audiences will know when they see "Batman Begins," opening Wednesday, is that a newer, more serious and deadly Caped Crusader is stalking the alleys and rooftops of Gotham City.

While there's still plenty of action and spectacle, gone is the nippled Batsuit and flamboyant scenery-chewing guest star villains of the previous films. And if you're waiting for Robin, you've wandered into the wrong comic book universe.

"If you ask me, I hope they never bring Robin back," says Christian Bale, 31, who takes over the role of billionaire Bruce Wayne and his alter ego in the new picture.

This isn't just a new Batman, it's the full story of how the orphaned Wayne learned how to be Batman. In one sense, it's a prequel to all the other Batman movies and stories, and the filmmakers were determined to rebuild him from the ground up.

"Realism was our mantra," says the film's writer David S. Goyer. "It had to be believable. All those things we take for granted - the gadgets, the car, the costume - had to be thought.

"We had to explain how Batman could command all this technology and do all those things that are so much a part of the character without drawing attention to himself. So we gave him a 'Q,'" a reference to James Bond's equipment expert.

This character is called Lucius Fox and is played by Morgan Freeman. "It's Fox who has access to all these prototype inventions that become Batman's arsenal - his body armor, his grappling hooks, his car," Goyer says.

"The point is, Bruce needs other people - he needs Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), he needs Rachel (Katie Holmes), he needs Alfred (Michael Caine). The old days when a guy could do it all by himself - that's not realistic anymore, and [director] Christopher Nolan and I were determined to ground the character in a believable world."

FRESH APPROACH

Nolan's previous films include two of the smartest of recent years, "Memento" (2000) and "Insomnia" (2002). He approached Warner Bros. about hiring him to direct "Batman Begins" when he realized they were sincere "about taking a fresh approach to the character," says the 34-year-old Londoner.

"So I told them I wanted to make a Batman movie that would be realistic in tone but also have the scale of the great Hollywood blockbusters I'd seen as a kid, like 'Star Wars' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' movies that took some of their inspiration from the epic films of David Lean and John Huston - the kind of grand filmmaking that takes itself seriously."

"It's Bruce Wayne, not Batman, who is the main character in our movie," Goyer says. "In the other movies, when you were with Bruce Wayne, you were just twiddling your thumbs until he got in the cape again. But we really wanted people to care about him."