With War for the Planet of the Apes landing in theaters next month, director Matt Reeves has already started making the press rounds for the final chapter in the new Apes trilogy. As you might expect, people have some questions about The Batman. What’s a bit more surprising is that Reeves actually had some encouraging and interesting things about his vision for the project rather than the boilerplate non-answers and roundabout diversions most major studio directors feed the junket press.

In an interview with New Trailer Buzz, Reeves emphasized that it’s early days yet on the project, mentioning that he just picture locked on War for the Planet of the Apes a matter of days ago, but he did talk about his “point-of-view driven” approach to filmmaking and the emotional parallels that attracted him to both Caesar and Batman.

“One of the reasons I was drawn to [The Batman] is that I had a similar obsession to Batman when I was younger that I had with the Apes series, which I was obsessed with. I see a parallel emotionally between Caesar and Batman, in that they’re both tortured and trying to sort of grapple within themselves to try and do the right thing in a very imperfect and, to some degree, corrupt world. It’s really that emotionality that I’m interested.”

But here’s the part where he says exactly what most Batman fans have been waiting to hear — he wants to honor the “World’s Greatest Detective” moniker with a “noir-driven” Batman film. Sweet sweet music to my ears. At the same time, Reeves says he’s interested in connecting you to the character’s inner emotionality.

“In all of my films, what I try to do, in an almost Hitchcockian sense, is use the camera and use the storytelling so that you become that character, and you emphasize with that point of view. There’s a chance to do an almost noir-driven, detective version of Batman that is point-of-view driven in a very, very powerful way, that hopefully is going to connect you to what’s going on inside of his head and inside of his heart.”

This ideation sounds pretty well in line with what Ben Affleck was planning while he was still attached to direct the film. At the time, he described The Batman as a Maltese Falcon-inspired detective story, and it certainly makes sense that the studio would want to find a director with a vision that would keep their star happy, even if he ultimately declined to direct.

As we previously reported, The Batman is headed towards a likely 2019 release date, which means that the film should get in front of cameras late this year.