From The Batman to the Kremlin: Matt Reeves Developing Film on Churchill and Stalin’s Wartime Summit

Matt Reeves has his cape in one hand and a history book in the other. While Gotham waits for The Batman: Part II, he and his 6th & Idaho banner are also cooking up a World War II drama about one of the most high-stakes meetings in modern politics.

First, back to Gotham

Reeves has been teasing The Batman: Part II without giving the game away. He has hinted the sequel's big bad is a fresh angle for live-action Batman:

"never really been done in a movie before"

Robert Pattinson is back under the cowl. The plan also points to returns for Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin. There have been rumblings that Tobias Menzies is circling a role too.

• Robert Pattinson returns as Batman
• Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell expected to reprise their roles
• Reeves teased a villain that has "never really been done in a movie before"
• Tobias Menzies is reportedly in the mix for a part

Behind the camera, Reeves confirmed he is re-teaming with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt. If the name makes your eyebrows go up, that tracks: Messerschmidt shot Mank, The Killer, and Mindhunter with David Fincher, plus Devotion for J.D. Dillard and Michael Mann's Ferrari. He also recently worked on The Adventures of Cliff Booth. That is a serious eye to bring into Gotham's gloom.

Meanwhile, a Moscow showdown

On a separate track, Reeves and 6th & Idaho are developing a period film set around a 1942 summit in Moscow, when Winston Churchill sat down with Joseph Stalin. The story zeroes in on a brief stretch of days that helped set the table for the Allies' ultimate victory three years later.

The script comes from historian and screenwriter Simon Sebag Montefiore, who has spent years writing about Stalin, the Romanov dynasty, and the sweep of 20th-century Russia. He also penned the screenplay for the upcoming biopic Young Stalin, so he is very much in his lane here.

Montefiore is framing this one as an intimate, pressure-cooker portrait of power. In his words:

"This movie is the culmination of a lifelong interest in Stalin and the script tells the inside story of his encounter with Churchill over just a few days, during which time the fate of the entire world hangs by a thread."

"We talk today about strong leaders, who have complete command. In Stalin and Churchill you have two of the very strongest leaders in history, who come together as the world is being torn apart. It is a portrait of two men and a portrait of power."

Lynn Harris, Reeves's producing partner at 6th & Idaho, has praised the project and the script, which tracks when these two wartime titans met face-to-face with everything on the line. That is the kind of material awards voters circle with a red pen.

So yes, Reeves is still deep in Gotham, but he is also aiming squarely at a muscular, talky historical thriller about Churchill and Stalin. A pulpy noir sequel on one side, a powder-keg summit drama on the other. That is range.