Guillermo Grispo has worked with director Zack
Snyder on stunts and fight choreography for
300 , Sucker Punch , Man of Steel , and most
recently, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice .
In a new interview with Spanish website Los
Andes Diario , Grispo talks about working on the
movie and teases that epic fight between
Batman and Superman.
Unfortunately Google Translate did a terrible
job, but Batman News comic reviewer Elena and
readers Manu and Manuel sent in translations of
their own. Thanks to everyone who offered and
helped me put together this great translation
below.
How was it to prepare the fights between
Batman and Superman?
I was fascinated. I’m telling you, for me, I
like both of the characters, but Batman I
really love. In 2007 I almost worked on
the second part of Christopher Nolan’s
trilogy, but ultimately questions about the
contract were not resolved and it all fell
apart [se me cayo el mundo is idiomatic].
Luckily, afterwards Zack brought Batman
into this project, making it an origin of
the Justice League. Which means being
in charge of the entire franchise and all
the sequels that will be Zack’s next
projects.
And what role did you have in the film?
I prepared choreography for the stunt
coordinator and second unit director,
Damon Caro, who Zack has work with for
years. I worked with them on 300, Sucker
Punch and the first Superman Man of
Steel, and in truth, those movies were my
film school. To me, Zack is the biggest
name in action films, and he is an expert,
but at the same time he gives free reign
for designing the fights and doing the
editing. Also, I’m tasked [not a great
word] with operating the camera for the
action shot tests, doing the choreography,
and afterwards all of the image
composition for these kinds of sample
action scenes.
What can you tell us the story?
Look, at Warner Bros., they are very strict,
so I can’t say much, but it’s no surprise if
I say Batman and Superman come face-
to-face in the movie. It’s one of the most
important sequences and I was actively
involved in the design of the fight: the
exchange of punches and the physical
movement were put together with my
partner Ryan Watson.
There’s a thought that Batman has no
chance, that the other [Superman] will
squash him like a bug. But when you see
the movie, and how it all comes out,
there’s a very intelligent explanation as to
why they would have a firsthand
confrontation though it seems to be
totally to Batman’s disadvantage.
Sounds entertaining designing fights
between superheroes…
Of course! Just imagine, it was like
making dulce de leche (a similar thing to
chocolate here in Argentina). Now
Batman it’s going to fight the way I’ve
always dreamed seeing him fight… he’s a
character so prepared in martial arts that
you can do a lot of things with him, but
filmmakers usually don’t go all the way
with it. Even in the last Nolan movies the
action scenes aren’t very good from a
technical, martial arts point of view to
things like choreography, filming, bad
camera movements…
But hey, don’t get me wrong, Nolan is
great, my hats off to him. He makes
fascinating stories, but I think that he did
not pay too much attention to the
fights. Those are the kind of details that
Zack, being so physical himself, loves
preparing. I think there’s going to be a big
difference when you see these Batman
fights in comparison to the previous
ones.
What do you have to be careful about
when preparing these scenes?
A lot of things… You can come and say
“well, now I want to hit against that
window and I want to break it” and you’re
told “No, no, stop!”, because you can’t
turn the camera here or there because of
the lighting, or because there isn’t a
digital extension prepared for a certain
point.
For example, imagine a fight in Gotham
exteriors: I say “well, on this scene I want
an angle looking upwards when he’s
kicking”, and I’m told “no, look, if you look
upwards that take will cost the
production $80,000 more because we will
have to add the digital extension from the
buildings to the clouds, so try something
else because is cheaper” (laughs).
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