'It was a human endurance contest': 'Batman' producer on journey to bring 'Dark Knight' to big screen
May 22, 2022
By Archana Prasad
New Delhi [India], May 23 : Michael Uslan, the American producer who has produced 'Batman' films and is a TED speaker, has shared his journey of bringing Batman to the big screen and his visit to India.
Michael while exclusively speaking to ANI talked about his journey with the iconic character and the 10 years of rejections.
He said, "It was a human endurance contest, from the first time I first raised the money privately and bought the rights to Batman from DC Comics to make dark and serious movies, till the time we were able to get our first movie made in 1989, it took 10 years."
"I was shocked to find that I was turned down by every single studio in Hollywood, every big production company. They told me that I was crazy, that it was the worst idea they have ever heard, people said you can't do dark superheroes, you can't make serious comic book movies and nobody ever made a movie based on an old TV series that has never been done," the producer continued.
He further spoke about how he rediscovered the character, "Batman is very unique, Batman is a superhero with no superpower, his greatest superpower I contend is his humanity and as a result of that, people all over the world can identify with Batman, can project themselves, their own philosophy and own politics on to Batman, and it's an incredible story in that regard cause very few characters are capable of not only transcending borders but transcending cultures."
Michael then on being asked about who played the role of Batman best according to him, stated that for him it would be like choosing his favourite child.
"You are not going to get a straight answer, I will say several things, I will say that we could not have achieved the world's first-ever dark and serious comic book superhero movie but for Michael Keaton and that was Tim Burton, the director's idea. He knew that he needed someone to play Bruce Wayne, the importance was Bruce Wayne more so than Batman, and that Keaton could convince audiences who never read the comic books, to believe that a guy like Michael Keaton could get dressed up as a bat and go out and fight crime and that was essential for the first picture," he said while talking about the first 'Batman' film that released in 1989.
Michael also addressed the portrayal of the Dark Knight by Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson, "Christian Bale I think nails the character of Bruce Wayne for every generation; he is following the path of a post-traumatic stress situation, he is on a journey of self-discovery and I think he is very effective. Robert Pattinson now is making the young Bruce Wayne, a batman who is just starting out and still is making mistakes, getting hurt and is in the process of evolving to one day be the dark night."
Further, on being asked about his first visit to India, he said, "We heard all about India from our son David, our son travelled around India years ago. I love learning about new cultures and India was always the place that was calling me."
"We just never had the opportunity because I travel all the time for business and wherever the next movie is I have to be there, so we never had the opportunity to come to India before this lovely invitation. We treasure every moment we have been here, we met people and we truly feel more like family than business associates. I feel comfortable, I feel at home and India has the greatest food in the world. I thought we had Indian food in America, but no, this was the best I ever had."
He further added, "I was fortunate enough to have been able to speak at United Nations on three occasions and with people representing all the different countries of the Middle East. What we all found is that even though many politicians in media keep telling us about our differences, it's our pop culture, movies, TV comics' books, animations that become the common ground for us and that's incredible."
