Even though there are more superhero films available today than you can shake a multi-colored utility belt at, it wasn’t always that way! Some point to the original Tim Burton Batman film from 1989 as a true pioneer of the genre.
Now, in an extensive interview with SuperHeroHype, producer Michael Uslan takes us back to that time and provides a little context surrounding the film’s release (and the challenges of developing what was then an unproven concept). “The Batman movie in 1989, it’s important to discuss…At the time the Batman movie came out, it was revolutionary. A big tip of the hat to the important and wonderful work of Richard Donner on Superman in 1977. He blazed a path by having Marlon Brando play Jor El…Again, thanks to another key piece with Jack Nicholson… that became the game changer for the comic book industry. That was a game changer for the movie industry. The movie industry has never been the same since, and if you look at it now, go online and look at the top twelve or thirteen movies of 2014, half of them are comic book movies.” Touts Uslan.
Even today the likes of Nicholson as the Joker vs. Ledger’s performance is still fodder for fan boy debate, another strange piece of casting caused a bit of controversy. When Michael Keaton (fresh off of Beetlejuice) was announced as the lead, many were none too happy. Uslan himself had reservations with the choice, revealing that, “I went absolutely crazy… when I asked Tim about it, that’s when I learned truly the genius of Tim Burton and his vision. Tim said to me, “I’ve worked with Michael Keaton and I know the whole key to making this work – to capturing the world audiences to accept a superhero comic book movie seriously is to make it about Bruce Wayne, not about Batman.”
The entire interview is a great read (covering a variety of other topics related to the comic’s past), which you can check out right here.