With Michael Keaton back in the comic book movie limelight playing the villain of the Spider-Man: Homecoming movie as Vulture, the actor talks about his first venture into the superhero genre with Batman.
Michael Keaton starred in the 1989 and 1992 Tim Burton Batman movies that arguably are the reason for the dark and gritty popular takes on comic book movies today. Keaton tells THR the Burton Batman flicks were far from a sure bet, stating, "If it went down, we were going down in a big way."
While the two Batman films did end up being big hits (earning close to $800 million), Keaton bowed out of doing the third Batman movie, Batman Forever, with director Joel Schumacher. Keaton offers when he realized Batman Forever wasn't going to be any good.
"It sucked," Keaton says of the Batman Forever script he was shown. "I knew it was in trouble when [Joel Schumacher] said, 'Why does everything have to be so dark?' "
Batman Forever actually did pretty well at the box office, netting $336.5 million, but it was all downhill from there as the next Batman movie, Batman and Robin, flopped big time. Eventually, Christopher Nolan would relaunch with Batman Begins in 2005, and Ben Affleck is behind another relaunch with the Justice League Batman.
