(Top) The caped crusader in a moment from Batman Begins; (below) Christian Bale as Batman and Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes in the film

It?s one of the most eagerly anticipated comics-to-movie transitions and the fifth in a series, but Batman Begins is no sequel or prequel. Instead, director Christopher Nolan explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight?s emergence as a force of good in the city of Gotham.

Filmed on location in Iceland, Chicago and London, the movie stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, Wayne?s childhood friend. The rest of the star cast comprises Michael Caine as Wayne?s butler Alfred, Liam Neeson as his mentor Henri Ducard, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, a former board member and sidelined employee of Wayne Enterprises, Gary Oldman as Lieutenant James Gordon and Ken Watanabe as the villainous Ra?s al Ghul.

?What?s always been fascinating about Batman is that he is a hero driven by quite negative impulses,? says Christopher Nolan. ?Batman is human, he?s flawed. But he?s someone who has taken these very powerful, self-destructive emotions and made something positive from them. To me, that makes Batman an extraordinarily relevant figure in today?s world.?

Batman Begins reinterprets the origin of the Dark Knight and introduces new characters into the story. ?How does one man change the world?? is the question that haunts Wayne, whose parents are gunned down before his eyes in a Gotham alleyway.

Tormented by guilt and anger, the disillusioned industrial heir vanishes from Gotham and secretly travels the world, seeking the means to fight injustice. In his quest to educate himself in the ways of the criminal mind, Wayne is mentored by a mysterious man called Ducard. He soon finds himself the target of recruiting efforts by the League of Shadows, a powerful, subversive vigilante group headed by enigmatic leader Ra?s al Ghul.

Wayne returns to Gotham to find the city devoured by rampant crime and corruption. Meanwhile, his close childhood friend Rachel Dawes, now an assistant district attorney, can?t secure a conviction for the city?s most notorious criminals because the justice system has been deeply polluted by people like crime boss Carmine Falcone.

With the help of his trusted butler Alfred, detective Jim Gordon and Lucius Fox, his ally at the Wayne Enterprises? applied sciences division, Bruce Wayne unleashes his awe-inspiring alter-ego ? Batman.

?What I wanted to do was tell the Batman story I?d never seen, the one that the fans have been wanting to see ? the story of how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman,? says Nolan, who has directed psychological thrillers like Memento and Insomnia. ?There is no one, definitive account of Batman?s origins, but there are key events that make Batman who he is,? Nolan explains.

?There were also a lot of very interesting gaps in the mythology that we were able to interpret ourselves and bring in our own ideas of how Bruce Wayne and Batman would have evolved specifically,? he adds.

?It?s a journey that never ends,? feels Christian Bale, who dons the cowl and cape after Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney. ?He is in a constant battle with himself internally and must control his demons and the negative emotions that will destroy his life if he allows them to.?

Bale discovered the Dark Knight several years ago at a comic book store in Santa Monica and feels Batman is more interesting than any other comic book hero or villain.

?One of the things about Rachel that I find so appealing is that she?s so idealistic,? says Katie Holmes. ?At one point she says to Bruce, ?It?s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you.? That line defines who she is.?

Batman Begins hits Calcutta halls on June 17.

Like the character of Batman, there have been different avatars of the Batmobile in the four movies. Batman Begins looks at the genesis of the Batmobile.

Designed as a military vehicle by the applied sciences division of Wayne Enterprises, the ?Tumbler? was meant to aid in building temporary bridging devices to carry troops and supplies over water and vast open space. Due to its expense, Wayne Enterprises didn?t mass-produce the vehicle, but upon Bruce Wayne?s discovery of the prototype, he maximised its stealth design and extraordinary applications to make it a powerful weapon in Batman?s quest for justice.

The Batmobile in action (above); Batman at the wheel (below)

At a glance:

• The Batmobile is nine ft and four inches at its widest point, 15 ft long and about five ft high

• It runs on regular unleaded fuel and weighs 2.5 tonnes

• The Batmobile is equipped with a 5.7 litre, 350 cubic inch, 340 horsepower engine with about 400 pounds of torque

• It can jump four to six ft high and has jumped 60 ft. It is equipped to drive off immediately after landing

• A jet burner located in the rear of the vehicle aids with jumping. A landing hook (like those used on aircraft carriers) can be utilised to pull the car to a halt upon a jump-and-land scenario

• The Batmobile has no front axle, enabling it to make extremely tight turns

• The vehicle has six wheels ? two in the front with sprint car race tires, and four at the back which utilise monster truck tires

• Cannons at the front of the vehicle can be fired to blast through walls and get out of tricky situations

Just how was the gigantic vehicle ? five working versions of which were made ? conceptualised and constructed? ?The first stage is the design, which is pretty much director Chris Nolan with the production designer, Nathan Crowley,? say Chris Corbould and Andy Smith, Batmobile engineers. ?They spent a lot of time in their garage putting together plastic models and coming up with the design. Then they came to us. That is where Andy stepped in.?

The running gear, the mechanics, the engine, the body panel and gadgets were then made. ?It?s a performance car and not a look-pretty car. One of the great scenes in Chicago, where we shot, involved a whole chase at 80-90 mph as opposed to the norm where you shoot at 40-50 mph and under-crank the camera to make it look faster,? offers the duo.

The new Batmobile has gadgets galore. ?It has what we call an air-ramp. When it gets up to speed, Batman knocks in the jet and the flaps, momentarily gets off the ground so it can jump across narrow gaps. It has guns on the front that he uses, not for shooting up cars and people, but more as a means of getting out of situations where he can clear a blockage.?

For stunt driver George Cottle, driving the Batmobile was a challenge. ?It was a completely different experience,? says Cottle, who has been driving, crashing and leaping cars for the movies since he was 17. ?It is the same driving principle as a normal car, but driving is extremely difficult as the visibility is so small. It?s almost like driving a go-cart.?

Cottle is also thankful he didn?t have to drive the car in full bat suit. ?It is so hot in that car anyway. One night we put a thermometer in there and it was about 145 degrees because you are sitting right in the engine bay.?