Do modern superhero movies owe it all to Tim Burton? Michael Keaton talks about the legacy of his Batman film and the controversy from when he was first cast as the Caped Crusader.
Tim Burton’s Batman film has gone down in history as one of the most beloved projects in the superhero genre. This is in no small part thanks to Michael Keaton’s casting as Bruce Wayne, which many see today as nearly perfect. However, according to Keaton, that was far from the sentiment from DC at the time due to his prior body of work.
“He hands me a script and goes, ‘Tell me what you think,’” Keaton explained at the ceremony for Tim Burton’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “This is after Beetlejuice. After that performance. After that type of movie. He says to the studio, ‘I want that guy.’”
“I’ll never understand this why anyone cared. The uproar…you would’ve thought we were being invaded. It was unbelievable. The press was going crazy. But he stood by me. The guts it took to stand by that decision will always be appreciated by me.”
Given Beetlejuice was such an oddball movie with Michael Keaton playing a less than scrupulous villain, it makes sense why DC would be hesitant to give the actor the leading role as Batman. However, the studio’s trust in Tim Burton managed to create one of the best enduring superhero projects of the 20th century. Though perhaps DC owes him more than they realize.
Is Tim Burton’s Batman The Genesis Of Superhero Films?
Michael Keaton doesn’t just thank Tim Burton with helping kickstart his career with projects like Beetlejuice and Batman. Rather, be believes the director kickstarted the entire superhero genre with his beloved project. Without him, according to Keaton, the current craze of spandex films from Marvel and DC Studios wouldn’t even exist.
“There are a lot of people making a lot of money out there with their superhero movies because of his choice and his vision of what those movies could be, because he changed everything,” Keaton continued “…I can’t necessarily say this, but there’s a strong possibility there is no Marvel Universe, there is no DC Universe, without Tim Burton. He was doubted and questioned.”
While Tim Burton was far from the first person to ever make a superhero movie, Batman was perhaps the first of them to truly capture what it meant to be a modern Hollywood blockbuster. In that sense, Michael Keaton is right that Burton spawned the genre that both Marvel and DC live off in the modern day. Though given how many other projects like X-Men and Spider-Man helped push the movement to the forefront, there’s certainly some debate on if that would hold true historically.
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