Christopher Nolan

[Bobthegoon89]

Was interested if Chris Nolan has ever commented on any of the previous Batman movies? Any quotes of his referring to them perhaps drawing inspirations and such? Cheers.

[Silver Nemesis]

"I think that when Tim Burton made his film in 1989, which was a brilliant film, visionary and extraordinarily idiosyncratic, it's a very, very stylized movie and when you go down that road... I mean to get to four films is pretty impressive because you're going to hit a dead end at a certain point. I mean it's so extreme in its approach it's bound to."

http://movies.about.com/od/batman/a/batmancn060805.htm

[Azrael]

http://gothamalleys.blogspot.com/2010/11/their-comments-on-others-work.html

[1989's Batman is] a brilliant film, visionary and extraordinarily idiosyncratic, it's a very, very stylized movie

You certainly can push it too far, but interestingly there are different ways to be disturbing  I mean, I don't talk a lot about the previous films because I didn't make them and they're not mine to talk about but certainly if you look at Batman Returns with Danny DeVito as The Penguin, eating the fish and everything, there are some extraordinarily disturbing images in that movie. But they're coming at it from a surreal point of view.
(Rebecca Murray int)

The 1989 Batman film that Tim Burton did, that tone has defined comic book movies (...) with the Tim Burton [Batman] film, however visionary it was—and I think it's quite brilliant—Gotham is just as extraordinary as Batman so you're denied that pleasure of seeing ordinary people just reacting.
(Box Office Mojo int)

I think what Tim Burton did with Batman was extraordinary, but it is very idiosyncratic. It is a very mad studio film when you really look at it. As much as I enjoyed that, I felt like there was a gap there. That is to say we've never done a kind of Dick Donner version of Batman, where it's a kind of ordinary world with an extraordinary hero at the center of it. There are the textures of the real world with this very surprising figure in the middle of it – then this origin story, which hadn't been touched.
(screenrant 2010)

The thing with Burton is that he had the challenge of convincing a cinema audience that you could have a 'cool' Batman film. Convincing an audience who remembers that the TV show was ridiculous. And he did it, he succeeded
(Batman Begins Screenplay Q&A 2005)

[Bobthegoon89]

http://gothamalleys.blogspot.com/2010/11/their-comments-on-others-work.html

[1989's Batman is] a brilliant film, visionary and extraordinarily idiosyncratic, it's a very, very stylized movie

You certainly can push it too far, but interestingly there are different ways to be disturbing  I mean, I don't talk a lot about the previous films because I didn't make them and they're not mine to talk about but certainly if you look at Batman Returns with Danny DeVito as The Penguin, eating the fish and everything, there are some extraordinarily disturbing images in that movie. But they're coming at it from a surreal point of view.
(Rebecca Murray int)

The 1989 Batman film that Tim Burton did, that tone has defined comic book movies (...) with the Tim Burton [Batman] film, however visionary it was—and I think it's quite brilliant—Gotham is just as extraordinary as Batman so you're denied that pleasure of seeing ordinary people just reacting.
(Box Office Mojo int)

I think what Tim Burton did with Batman was extraordinary, but it is very idiosyncratic. It is a very mad studio film when you really look at it. As much as I enjoyed that, I felt like there was a gap there. That is to say we've never done a kind of Dick Donner version of Batman, where it's a kind of ordinary world with an extraordinary hero at the center of it. There are the textures of the real world with this very surprising figure in the middle of it – then this origin story, which hadn't been touched.
(screenrant 2010)

The thing with Burton is that he had the challenge of convincing a cinema audience that you could have a 'cool' Batman film. Convincing an audience who remembers that the TV show was ridiculous. And he did it, he succeeded
(Batman Begins Screenplay Q&A 2005)

Thanks very much!

The Batman Returns comment I'm interested in. I can't really grasp Nolan's tone in that quote. Is he being complimentary about the disturbing imagery or critical towards it's choices?