Thumbnail Image by William Gray → Less than a month after it was reported that Academy Award-nominated actor Jonah Hill was lined up to star alongside Robert Pattinson in The Batman, Deadline has dropped a bombshell: Hill is no longer in talks for the movie.
Hill, originally known for roles in raunchy comedies, took his career to new heights with his astounding performances in The Wolf of Wall Street and the Netflix series Maniac, was reportedly being courted to portray a villain in the Matt Reeves-directed film. Though Warner Bros. gave no explicit confirmation, outlets widely claimed that Hill would play either the Riddler or Penguin opposite Pattinson's Bruce Wayne.
Sources close to Deadline with knowledge of the situation have indicated that talks broke down between Hill and the powers that be at Warner Bros. But why exactly did those conversations stop? It's looking like the split was a mutual decision, and it may have at least partially been over money. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Hill and Warner Bros. simply couldn't, quote, "come to terms on a deal" language that hints that contractual negotiations may have been the meat of the talks between the actor and the studio.
Hill passing on The Batman, or Warner Bros. executives telling him things just weren't going to work out, may actually have been weeks in the making. Variety reporter Justin Kroll indicated in a now-deleted tweet on September 25, 2019 exactly three weeks before Deadline's new report that Hill was sitting on the offer for The Batman "for over a month" and that money was a "bargaining point" in conversations with Warner Bros. According to Kroll's sources, Hill reportedly wanted $10 million more than double what Pattinson is making for actually leading the film.
These claims haven't been corroborated, but this wasn't coming from some rumor site. It's Variety.
Kroll also noted that Hill and Warner Bros. may have been torn between the two roles, unable to decide whether he'd star as the Riddler or Penguin, but it seems more likely that money was the biggest motivating factor.
Even without Hill, The Batman has some serious star power attached to it. Reeves, who's known for directing the original Cloverfield, the horror remake Let Me In, and the sequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, is at the helm. Pattinson, who has become something of an indie movie king and has long since shed the weight of his breakout role in the Twilight film franchise, is the title star. Jeffrey Wright will play Commissioner Gordon and newly added actress Zoë Kravitz will dig her claws into Catwoman. Even without Hill on board, The Batman is packing major heat, and Warner Bros. is already looking to find someone just as talented as Hill to add even further star power. And now Paul Dano has been cast as The Riddler! Keep watching the video to see that The Batman just lost Jonah Hill!
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