Michael Keaton Is Batman (again)

[Small Man Big Horse]

Not sure what this means for the forthcoming Robert Pattison movie, but apparently Keaton may take on the role once again, mainly in a "Nick Fury"-esque role rather than in his own movie, though continuity wise it would be linked to Batman and Batman Returns. Here's the AV Club's take on it all:

For years, Warner Bros. has tried—and mostly failed—to use its DC superhero movies to imitate what Disney has been doing with Marvel, introducing characters in their own solo movies and then putting them together for a big team-up movie (though only Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman really got introductions like that before Justice League came along). Now, though, the studio has landed on a brilliant idea that plays to its own strengths rather than mimicking Marvel's, and it might give DC just the push it needs to get its superhero movies back on track—and by "its own strengths" we're specifically referring to one of the best damn things to come out of a DC superhero movie: Michael Keaton's Batman.

According to Deadline, Keaton is currently "in early talks" to reprise his role as Batman (as seen in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman and its 1992 sequel), but rather than being the focus of his own adventure, he'd be taking on a more advisory role to a new generation of heroes. Deadline refers to it as a "Nick Fury-like" gig, and while that does mean this is once again explicitly imitating Marvel (referring to Samuel L. Jackson's role as the guy who ties together all of the Marvel movies, one way or another), it's hard to object to that when we're talking about the freakin' Michael Keaton Batman.

The specific details of how this would work are even more exciting, and not just because it would apparently mean excising Justice League and Ben Affleck's Batman from the canon of DC's movie universe. Deadline says this would specifically pick up Keaton-Batman's story after Batman Returns, meaning he would be playing the same Batman who broke up Joker's museum date and fought off murder penguins at the abandoned Gotham zoo, and he would be serving as a mentor in the upcoming Flash and Batgirl movies. (This would also give them a chance to recast the Flash, if they were maybe looking for an excuse to do that, since keeping Ezra Miller would be a meaningless connection to a series of now-unrelated movies.)

Deadline cautions that a deal between Keaton and Warner Bros. "may not happen," but c'mon, this is has to happen. We know budgets might be a little tighter with Zack Snyder shoveling barrels of cash into his new version of Justice League, but this is the Michael Keaton Batman we're talking about. Pay him whatever he wants.

Keaton's my favourite Batman as it goes so I'd like to see this happen, though not giving him his own film would feel a bit of a waste. Still, if it means an end to Snyder-verse then surely it'd be a good thing, hell, they could even bring back Brendon Routh too as I was very fond of his Superman.

[bgmnts]

They should just do a multiple universe Batman, get all the Batmen to star in one film.

[SavageHedgehog]

Hopefully they can backdoor this into Keaton doing a version of The Dark Knight Rises, not necessarily a direct adaptation but something focusing on Keaton as an aging Batman would be great.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

They already made the best Batman movie, the Lego Batman Movie.

[Butchers Blind]

Now, though, the studio has landed on a brilliant idea 

Yeah, I'd hold back on that.

[Old Nehamkin]

Now, though, the studio has landed on a brilliant idea that plays to its own strengths rather than mimicking Marvel's, and it might give DC just the push it needs to get its superhero movies back on track—and by "its own strengths" we're specifically referring to one of the best damn things to come out of a DC superhero movie: Michael Keaton's Batman.

...

Deadline refers to it as a "Nick Fury-like" gig, and while that does mean this is once again explicitly imitating Marvel (referring to Samuel L. Jackson's role as the guy who ties together all of the Marvel movies, one way or another), it's hard to object to that when we're talking about the freakin' Michael Keaton Batman.

...

The specific details of how this would work are even more exciting, and not just because it would apparently mean excising Justice League and Ben Affleck's Batman from the canon of DC's movie universe.

...

Deadline cautions that a deal between Keaton and Warner Bros. "may not happen," but c'mon, this is has to happen. We know budgets might be a little tighter with Zack Snyder shoveling barrels of cash into his new version of Justice League, but this is the Michael Keaton Batman we're talking about. Pay him whatever he wants.

What happened to the AV Club? Anyone else remember when they used to be miles above this kind of cloying, infantile, PR-tailored Buzzfeed shit?

[famethrowa]

What happened to the AV Club? Anyone else remember when they used to be miles above this kind of cloying, infantile, PR-tailored Buzzfeed shit?

Never read it much, but I always thought it was an Onion spin-off for snarky sarcastic articles and reviews, kind of like (old) Cracked and Something Awful front page?

[Goldentony]

when they said they had a good idea at the start of this I thought stand alone films like Joker like one shot paperbacks or whatever the fuck but no it's do this fucking shit so he can do catchphrases to some arsehole tit on a bike like a wanker, fuck me, great, he's back lads

[Old Nehamkin]

Never read it much, but I always thought it was an Onion spin-off for snarky sarcastic articles and reviews, kind of like (old) Cracked and Something Awful front page?

That's how it started, yeah, but for quite a decent period up to maybe 7 or 8 years ago it was home to some of the better film and TV critics online and its news reporting maintained at least a basic level of journalistic integrity beneath the snark and irony. It's certainly hard to imagine the 2010 version of the site reporting this story in such a breathless, uncritical fanboy style or using a phrase like "c'mon, this is has to happen [SIC]".

[Mister Six]

Talk is that they're going to have the Flash zipping across parallel universes, which is how he would meet Keaton Batman, and also allow DC to try to reconcile its fucked reboots and cast changes. Just treat it as all "real", in different pockets of continuity.

Of course, they just did exactly this with the CW superhero TV series, which included crossovers with/cameos from the Burton Batman films (via the reporter character, I forget his name, being played by the same Scott), 60s Batman (guest cameo by Burt Ward), Superman Returns (Brandon Routh resuming his role as Superman), Smallville, the 2000s Birds of Prey TV show, Lucifer, Titans, Doom Patrol and... er...

Ezra Miller's Flash.

(I do recommend watching that, by the way, it's very funny and charming, even if the overall crossover was a bit shite.)

Anyway, I'm more interested in knowing whether this will use the Grant Morrison script that Miller commissioned, and said he would quit the role if he didn't get to use.

[Small Man Big Horse]

That's how it started, yeah, but for quite a decent period up to maybe 7 or 8 years ago it was home to some of the better film and TV critics online and its news reporting maintained at least a basic level of journalistic integrity beneath the snark and irony. It's certainly hard to imagine the 2010 version of the site reporting this story in such a breathless, uncritical fanboy style or using a phrase like "c'mon, this is has to happen [SIC]".

Yeah, there was a time that the AV Club was my favourite place on the net bar CaB, but the story of it's decline is a fairly long and annoying one, what with a sod load of the writers buggering off to form another site (The Dissolve), that folding within about two years, and then the AV Club being sold to different owners a couple of times and various writers either being fired or leaving in disgust. There's still a couple of freelancers I like (Will Harris does some great Random Roles interviews, while Ignatiy Vishnevetsky's film reviews are often a fascinating read) but it's also often poor these days, and the guys doing the news pieces are awful.

Talk is that they're going to have the Flash zipping across parallel universes, which is how he would meet Keaton Batman, and also allow DC to try to reconcile its fucked reboots and cast changes. Just treat it as all "real", in different pockets of continuity.

Of course, they just did exactly this with the CW superhero TV series, which included crossovers with/cameos from the Burton Batman films (via the reporter character, I forget his name, being played by the same Scott), 60s Batman (guest cameo by Burt Ward), Superman Returns (Brandon Routh resuming his role as Superman), Smallville, the 2000s Birds of Prey TV show, Lucifer, Titans, Doom Patrol and... er...

Ezra Miller's Flash.

(I do recommend watching that, by the way, it's very funny and charming, even if the overall crossover was a bit shite.)

Anyway, I'm more interested in knowing whether this will use the Grant Morrison script that Miller commissioned, and said he would quit the role if he didn't get to use.

When it comes to the CW DC shows I only tune in to the big crossover events, but I quite liked Crisis, it ended poorly and should have been more faithful to it's source material, but it was a lot of fun seeing some of the older takes on the characters.

[dissolute ocelot]

Still not convinced that Keaton was a particularly good Batman, despite the Tim Burton movies being generally well-made, although he beats Bale. If they made Keaton a villain (as he was in one of the myriad Spiderfilms) that would be better. But I couldn't care less if he appears for 2 minutes and hands bat-Pattinson some mysterious item or whatever a Fury-esque Batman is supposed to do. Is it even specifically a Fury-esque Batman rather than a Fury-esque Bruce Wayne?

I really try hard not to give a fuck about mediocre superhero movies but if you want to see flashy action-packed spectacles that don't involve people being horribly tortured all the time, what else is a guy supposed to do? There aren't enough Pixar and Lego movies, sadly.

[chveik]

I really try hard not to give a fuck about mediocre superhero movies but if you want to see flashy action-packed spectacles that don't involve people being horribly tortured all the time, what else is a guy supposed to do? There aren't enough Pixar and Lego movies, sadly.

Hong Kong cinema is there for you

[The Culture Bunker]

When it comes to the CW DC shows I only tune in to the big crossover events, but I quite liked Crisis, it ended poorly and should have been more faithful to it's source material, but it was a lot of fun seeing some of the older takes on the characters.

I tuned out of Arrow/the Flash a fair old time ago due to content fatigue, but I did watch the Crisis crossover and found it enjoyable enough, esp the cameos from the likes of Kevin Conroy. I did assume the ending was in part down to the chap who plays Green Arrow deciding he wanted to do other things.

[Kelvin]

There's a lot of potential in a Batman Beyond style film; Bruce Wayne old and jaded, trains and lives vicariously through his replacement. However, it's much more interesting if you set it in the future, with advanced tech you wouldn't want a traditional Batman to use, so they can take the concept in a different direction than the normal films. Personally, I'd prefer it if they did all that with a Nightwing film, though.

[The Culture Bunker]

There's a lot of potential in a Batman Beyond style film; Bruce Wayne old and jaded, trains and lives vicariously through his replacement. However, it's much more interesting if you set it in the future, with advanced tech you wouldn't want a traditional Batman to use, so they can take the concept in a different direction than the normal films. Personally, I'd prefer it if they did all that with a Nightwing film, though.

I can remember that Batman Beyond cartoon (which was on the lines you describe, with a 80 odd year old Bruce Wayne) being pretty good.

[Bad Ambassador]

It sounded to me like they want to do Batman: Into the Batverse.

[Kelvin]

I can remember that Batman Beyond cartoon (which was on the lines you describe, with a 80 odd year old Bruce Wayne) being pretty good.

It's okay. The main character and supporting cast isn't very engaging, which is a real problem. The stuff with Wayne and how his past keeps coming back to haunt him is the most interesting stuff, along with some of the new spins on old villains. I'd like the core idea of an old, infirm Wayne guiding his replacement to be the transposed onto a more interesting lead - or better still an ex-Robin, Like Grayson, with all the fucked up Father/Son issues that throws up. The futuristic setting would be a nice way to inject new life into Gotham and the Batman tech, too.

[Kelvin]

Also; if this is going to be a Flash Movie, that just visits Keaton, I hope Miller will get to show off his fighting style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcK9hQlOYSI

[SavageHedgehog]

I think Batman Beyond gained a good reputation for being better than you'd expect from what seemed like a kid pandering, and was a toy sale pandering, concept, but it's still a big step down from the earlier Timm cartoons and is certainly more dated (although that's part of its charm now).

[Mister Six]

When it comes to the CW DC shows I only tune in to the big crossover events, but I quite liked Crisis, it ended poorly and should have been more faithful to it's source material, but it was a lot of fun seeing some of the older takes on the characters.

There were fun moments, but for the most part it was a barely coherent bunch of cobbled-together setpieces, with some truly atrocious dialogue and acting. Or so it seemed to me, but I always bounce off the Arrowverse stuff and I'm not up on the latest plotlines so obviously I'm not the target market. The only Arrowverse show I watch is Legends, which is great.

[Kelvin]

I think Batman Beyond gained a good reputation for being better than you'd expect from what seemed like a kid pandering, and was a toy sale pandering, concept, but it's still a big step down from the earlier Timm cartoons and is certainly more dated (although that's part of its charm now).

That's my point. The show itself was only middling, but the central idea of an old Batman training his successor in a futuristic Gotham has loads of potential for a film series.

[Small Man Big Horse]

There were fun moments, but for the most part it was a barely coherent bunch of cobbled-together setpieces, with some truly atrocious dialogue and acting. Or so it seemed to me, but I always bounce off the Arrowverse stuff and I'm not up on the latest plotlines so obviously I'm not the target market. The only Arrowverse show I watch is Legends, which is great.

I partially agree with you, I thought some of the acting was great (Routh as Superman and Welling as Superman being the main two) but yeah there was some very dodgy bits, it suffered from not having much of Matt Ryan's Constantine in it, and the ending was really poor, but despite all that I quite liked it. I'm not up on the Arrowverse either though, I've watched the first three or four episodes of each show and found them drab so as mentioned before just do the big crossovers now.

And the AV Club keep championing Legends and saying how fun it is, but I struggled with what I saw of the first season, when would you say it starts getting good?

[Mister Six]

And the AV Club keep championing Legends and saying how fun it is, but I struggled with what I saw of the first season, when would you say it starts getting good?

Oh yeah, the first season is pish. I skipped it (as much as I love Arthur Darvill). Season two is where they start to embrace the silliness and turn it into a show about a bunch of fuck-ups who keep messing up history every time they try to fix it.[nb]That was one of the things I liked about Crisis - all the other heroes get a dramatic intro with them fighting dragons or whatever, whereas the Legends are just doing a pub quiz. Which they lose. Because they accidentally changed history. Again.[/nb] There are a few wobbles (there's a spectacularly misguided episode where they try to balance the horrors of slavery with wacky Confederate zombie adventures) but by the middle of season two it's on the right track, and it just gets more fun from there on.

There are a bunch of guest appearances by characters from other shows, but they should be easy enough to understand as everything is more or less contextualised for people like me who don't bother with the other series, and all the baddies are called stuff like "Damien Dahrk" and "Eobad Thorne", so it's pretty clear who you're supposed to be rooting for.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Oh yeah, the first season is pish. I skipped it (as much as I love Arthur Darvill). Season two is where they start to embrace the silliness and turn it into a show about a bunch of fuck-ups who keep messing up history every time they try to fix it.[nb]That was one of the things I liked about Crisis - all the other heroes get a dramatic intro with them fighting dragons or whatever, whereas the Legends are just doing a pub quiz. Which they lose. Because they accidentally changed history. Again.[/nb] There are a few wobbles (there's a spectacularly misguided episode where they try to balance the horrors of slavery with wacky Confederate zombie adventures) but by the middle of season two it's on the right track, and it just gets more fun from there on.

There are a bunch of guest appearances by characters from other shows, but they should be easy enough to understand as everything is more or less contextualised for people like me who don't bother with the other series, and all the baddies are called stuff like "Damien Dahrk" and "Eobad Thorne", so it's pretty clear who you're supposed to be rooting for.

Cool, thanks for that, I'll skip forward to season 2 (I think I saw a good half of season 1 now thinking about it, so won't be missing out on too much) and see how I get on.

[Hobo]

They're missing a trick if this isn't a smokescreen for the Flash movie being Flashpoint, and Keaton playing 'that' version of Batman.

A great way to introduce the multiverse, and probably the best chance at a decent cinema compatible script using the Flash as a lead.

[Kelvin]

A great way to introduce the multiverse, and probably the best chance at a decent cinema compatible script using the Flash as a lead.

That version of Batman wouldn't work, though, because

Spoiler alert

the last Batman we got - the one in Flash's universe - was a murderous psychopath.

[close]

[The Culture Bunker]

That version of Batman wouldn't work, though, because

Spoiler alert

the last Batman we got -

[close]

Could do some kind of storyline where that Batman is dead, Flash jumps between universes recruiting various variations, including Keaton's. At conclusion, multiverses merge into one and the true remaining Batman is whatshisname that got the gig recently. Job done, DC can send me a cheque for $50.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

gawd how many animated Batman films have there been now though

loads and loads

they even had one with Jason Todd as The Red Hood IIRC

which is interesting because I think Batman Animated and Batman Beyond just skipped over him and his grisly death and went straight to Tim Drake (who the Joker kidnapped and tortured, which is lovely)

also there's a movie where Batman fights the Ninja Turtles and it has the ugliest Ninja Turtles designs I've ever seen

[Mango Chimes]

I partially agree with you, I thought some of the acting was great (Routh as Superman and Welling as Superman being the main two)

I just watched a clip show of supposedly all the Routh bits, and he's not served well by the script. Maybe it felt like less of a rushed missed opportunity in context. Welling's wonderful, and really nice to see him back. Short bearded Lex and his comedy magic book is laughably shit. Did Dean Cain not get a go?

On topic: Keaton's Bruce Wayne is 50% haircut. I don't want to see him bald and taking a backseat to some new people.