Everybody was excited to see Michael Keaton return to arguably his most famous role as Batman / Bruce Wayne. The word out of early screenings of The Flash was strong. There were all sorts of celebrity endorsements (remember Tom Cruise?) talking about how good it was. Then… well.
Viewed in hindsight it looks as if Hollywood shenanigans were in full effect to try and drive people back to theaters post-COVID. Still, it fared better than Batgirl.
The movie was shot, it was deep in post-production when it was completely trashed as a tax write-off by Warner Bros. Discovery. It can never see the light of day in any profit-making form.
Is Keaton upset? Not even slightly. In a wonderful bit of realistic pragmatism and honesty, he gave an interview to GQ (as reported by Dark Horizons) where he said:
“No, I didn’t care one way or another. Big, fun, nice check.”
The report then says he did a gesture with his hands to signify money.
He did say he felt bad for the directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah:
“I like those boys. They’re nice guys. I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad. Me? I’m good.”
As I read those words, I can actually hear him saying them in his most Keaton way.
Keaton’s career second wind was kickstarted by Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman (2014), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. A fun turn as Spider-Man villain Vulture and the excellent The Founder helped cement his returning status.
He returns to one of his most famous roles in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice which is released in a few weeks.