Batman star Michael Keaton has revealed why he never returned for a third movie.
During an interview with Backstage, the 70-year-old former Batman explained why he left the franchise after Batman Returns.
“I remember one of the things that I walked away going, ‘Oh boy, I can't do this’. [Schumacher] asked me, ‘I don’t understand why everything has to be so dark and everything so sad,’ and I went, ‘Wait a minute, do you know how this guy got to be Batman? Have you read… I mean, it's pretty simple.’”
It turns out that after Tim Burton exited the popular comic book franchise, Keaton wasn’t exactly keen on director Joel Schumacher’s new direction.
Schumacher famously followed up Burton’s duet with Batman Forever – a camp, over-the-top comic book movie starring Val Kilmer as Batman. It’s often thought of as one of the worst Batman movies, with only Batman & Robin (also directed by Schumacher) able to come close in terms of how bad it was.
So why did Keaton suit up as Batman in the first place?
“It was always Bruce Wayne,” he said. “It was never Batman. To me, I know the name of the movie is Batman, and it's hugely iconic and very cool and [a] cultural iconic and because of Tim Burton, artistically iconic. I knew from the get-go it was Bruce Wayne.”
“That was the secret,” he added. “I never talked about it. Batman, Batman, Batman does this, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Y'all are thinking wrong here.’ Bruce Wayne. What kind of person does that? Who becomes that? What kind of person?”
Upcoming DC movie The Batman is set to explore just that, looking further back into Bruce Wayne’s vigilante career and asking what kind of person dons the cowl to become Batman.
The Batman opens in theaters on March 4, 2022.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading...
During an interview with Backstage, the 70-year-old former Batman explained why he left the franchise after Batman Returns.
“I remember one of the things that I walked away going, ‘Oh boy, I can't do this’. [Schumacher] asked me, ‘I don’t understand why everything has to be so dark and everything so sad,’ and I went, ‘Wait a minute, do you know how this guy got to be Batman? Have you read… I mean, it's pretty simple.’”
It turns out that after Tim Burton exited the popular comic book franchise, Keaton wasn’t exactly keen on director Joel Schumacher’s new direction.
Schumacher famously followed up Burton’s duet with Batman Forever – a camp, over-the-top comic book movie starring Val Kilmer as Batman. It’s often thought of as one of the worst Batman movies, with only Batman & Robin (also directed by Schumacher) able to come close in terms of how bad it was.
So why did Keaton suit up as Batman in the first place?
“It was always Bruce Wayne,” he said. “It was never Batman. To me, I know the name of the movie is Batman, and it's hugely iconic and very cool and [a] cultural iconic and because of Tim Burton, artistically iconic. I knew from the get-go it was Bruce Wayne.”
“That was the secret,” he added. “I never talked about it. Batman, Batman, Batman does this, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Y'all are thinking wrong here.’ Bruce Wayne. What kind of person does that? Who becomes that? What kind of person?”
Upcoming DC movie The Batman is set to explore just that, looking further back into Bruce Wayne’s vigilante career and asking what kind of person dons the cowl to become Batman.
The Batman opens in theaters on March 4, 2022.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading...