Michael Keaton Wanted His Batman to Be More Like Christian Bale’s, Reveals How His Plans Failed After Tim Burton’s Exit
American actor Michael Keaton has been in the entertainment industry for nearly five decades. His first breakthrough role was as the comic lead Bill “Blaze” Blazejowski in Ron Howard’s 1982 comedy Night Shift. His performance as the titular character in Tim Burton’s 1988 horror-comedy Beetlejuice earned him great critical acclaim and landed him on Hollywood’s A-List.
Michael Keaton’s portrayal of an addicted realtor in Glenn Gordon Caron’s Clean and Sober also helped establish him as an actor. In 1989, he collaborated with Tim Burton again but this time it was for the dramatic lead Batman in the eponymous movie. Despite his casting being largely opposed by DC fans, he managed to win their hearts with his performance. Although he did not return for a third movie, he revealed his vision for it.
Michael Keaton’s Vision For Tim Burton’s Third Batman Movie
The legacy of DC’s Batman films dates back to 1943. However, the character started gaining momentum after Adam West’s portrayal of the character in the 1966 film Batman: The Movie. Michael Keaton‘s Batman is undeniably one of the best portrayals of the DC superhero. In fact, this is when things actually started looking interesting in Batman’s universe.
Michael Keaton starred in the Batman movies that Tim Burton directed, and ironically, those were the only two movies in which he played the caped crusader. Following the exit of Burton and Keaton, the film adaptations of Batman did not do all too well until Christopher Nolan decided to start his own franchise.
Read More: To Avoid Mixing His Fame with Michael Douglas, Batman Star Michael Keaton Changed His Real Name
The Purple Rose of Cairo actor once told IndieWire that his vision for his third Batman movie was Nolan-esque, saying:
“You look at where he went, which is exactly what I wanted to do when I was having meetings about the third one. I said you want to see how this guy started. We’ve got a chance here to fix whatever we kind of maybe went off. This could be brilliant.”
Keaton did not hold back his appreciation for what Christopher Nolan did with the character and also praised Christian Bale’s performance. He also joked that he has not really seen the movies.
Christopher Nolan Saved Batman’s Legacy
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Michael Keaton’s vision for the third movie did not come to fruition as he left the franchise after Tim Burton was fired. Reportedly, he did not agree with the screenplay that the new director Joel Schumacher had approved. He did not give in even though Warner Bros. offered him $15 million.
Joel Schumacher’s 1995 movie Batman Forever featuring Van Kilmer received mixed reviews upon release and proved Keaton right as the screenplay was one of the major reasons for the film’s poor performance. This went on for several movies until 2005 when Christopher Nolan took over the reins of the Batman films.
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Christian Bale’s performance as Batman proved to be of great asset to The Dark Knight trilogy. All three movies, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises directed by Nolan received great critical and commercial acclaim. In fact, the last of these outgrossed its predecessors.
Source: IndieWire
