Following a recent press screening for the pilot of the much-anticipated Gotham , I had the chance to speak to the show’s executive producers, Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon. Heller (creator of The Mentalist) wrote the pilot episode and is serving as showrunner, while Cannon (whose many TV directorial credits include CSI and Nikita) directed the pilot.

The two discussed what it’s like exploring their take on a character and franchise that is as well known as Batman, finding the right tone and look and more.

Loading

Loading

Loading

Exactly. 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 '70s and early '80s. 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.It's the best work he's ever done – [to Cannon] I hope you don't find that offensive! -- really, because that vision had been in his head that long. That's the great thing about the material; it's in everyone's head. It's the real mythic popular culture. So we're really just tapping into a great stream of good stuff. So yeah, it's daunting, but it's also nothing but gold that dig you up when you get into it.Absolutely. It reminds me of a band like The Rolling Stones. Should you never play their songs? That's the world to me. It's that rich. If it were music, it'd be The Rolling Stones. It would be The Beatles. It's that great a franchise. I just hope we play their songs well.Yeah, yeah. And there's still a lot of characters, as you know, to be introduced. I mean, a lot of the technical job is, again, it's getting back to why it's such a great world to live in. There are so many stories to tell, so many great characters. If you don't see the character that you love in that episode, you'll see it him in the next one -- because it's a tapestry. We have to tell so many different stories. The fun of it is in finding the storyline you like, but then there's a lot of other stuff going on.Right, a lot. I had to find a visual effects company that shared the same vision, because I didn't want to keep going over -- and I did, in CoSA. They're a wonderful bunch of guys who really helped me. I drew a lot. It's the first pilot I've ever sat down with a production designer and drawn again, which I really appreciated. But the main thing was for it to be real. I didn't want any CG anything. So it had to be real, and that meant real weather, a real visceral experience of the place. So we were constantly using steam, rain... So I think that was the important thing, was that it should be seamless. I did a helicopter shoot, with very much in mind the drawings. I bent some rules in New York and got the shots I needed. Then all we had to do was take away pieces of buildings and add a few others, and we stole from real pictures, real reference material: cathedrals, gothic buildings, London, Paris, Barcelona -- and that's all in there. So that means Gotham is a hodgepodge of so many great cities.Well, it's really about telling the true story of how someone might become the Batman. The psychological truth of that is that he'd be a lot more damaged and a lot more traumatized and a lot more strange than some visions of how that character would be. It's a dark character, and it's a character under pressure. So to that degree, as much as I hate to say it, he's not a fun character, as you might imagine. It's not a tale of triumph. It's a tale of redemption.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."My take on it is it's a bit like Greek mythology. There's a thousand stories. They all contradict themselves to a degree, but that's the beauty of it -- telling stories about characters that are larger than any one story. So that makes it much easier.Exactly!

Gotham will screen at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 26th and premieres this fall on FOX.Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman