Batman: Black & White is a lengthy fan production from Chicago filmmaker Christopher Schrader and his producing partner Kristen Wenke. While many parts of the Batman mythos have been explored in the past, this down and dirty, film noir thriller details a generally obscure time in the hero’s timeline.
The flick finds Batman older and on his own, having had a fall out with the last Robin, Tim Drake, who’s now a detective with the Gotham City Police. Stirring the pot is Selina Kyle—AKA Catwoman—who’s been working on the sly with Drake. While they all have their misgivings about each other, the three must put aside their differences and unite to find a brutal killer who’s single-handedly taking down down a ruthless crime syndicate. While the trio is tenuously united, however, they all have their own motives and plans.
Shot for 25 days across three months in the fall of 2007, the 110-minute fan film was made for $2,000, and is divided into three 24-minute segments. The film is darker than a number of fan productions, but as Schrader noted on his website, “it’s still a Batman movie. It’s not Reservoir Dogs or anything.” He added:
My favorite Batman stories are the darker, more noir-ish adult ones. The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale, Year One & The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, and more recently The Joker by Brian Azzarello & Lee Bermejo. That’s the Gotham City I wanted this film to take place in. And those aren’t really kid friendly. They go to some pretty extreme places and don’t pull any punches. And yes, the film gets pretty murky in some spots. But everything that’s in there is there for a reason…. You know within a few minutes that this is going to be a darker approach.
SEE THE FAN FILM, BLOOPER REEL AND MORE AFTER THE JUMP!
While it’s a long movie, Schrader never intended to make a feature-length fan film. Instead, he broke it up into three segments in order to better replicate the experience of reading a comic book story arc. All three parts are below, as well as the blooper reel, but you can watch the film with a director’s commentary track (!) at the 27thletterproductions.com website.
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