As to be expected anytime someone is cast as a superhero, there were many comic book fans out there who grabbed their torches and pitchforks and stormed the internet to voice their displeasure over Robert Pattinson being cast as the new Bruce Wayne/Batman. But the longtime executive producer of the BATMAN movies, Michael E. Uslan, isn’t having any of it, and went on the defense of the star and director Matt Reeves’ decision to pick him, saying everyone just needs to “wait 'til you see the movie.”
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Uslan was speaking at Germany’s CCXP Cologne convention recently (via Comic Book), when he started speaking about all the instant fan outrage that comes with these casting matters. “My position is this: trust the filmmaker and give the filmmaker, and the filmmaker’s vision, the benefit of the doubt. Then wait ’til you see the movie,” he said.
The producer has been around the block a few times, and this fan anger has not only been aimed at this new Batman movie, but seemingly every Batman movie he’s ever been part of. He brought up the anger towards the studio when Michael Keaton – more known for his comedic work at the time – was cast as Batman for Tim Burton’s 1989 movie.
“The fans were up in arms: ‘How can you have a comedian play Batman? You guys are gonna revert it back to the 1960s show, you’re gonna destroy Batman.’ Until they saw the movie and saw what Tim Burton’s vision was, and how he executed it. And then the fans never wanted anyone else to be Batman.”
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He continued, saying that same outrage was geared towards Heath Ledger’s casting as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT (for which he won a posthumous Oscar), as well as Anne Hathaway for Catwoman in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.
“’How dare you cast some gay cowboy to play the Joker? He’ll destroy the character forever!’ And then of course after they see the movie, they never want anyone else to be the Joker. And it repeated again with Anne Hathaway, when it was announced she would play Catwoman, because she was not the obvious choice. People were thinking maybe Angelina Jolie or somebody, and ‘oh, she’s the girl next door, she could never do it.’ And then she did this brilliant, brilliant job.”
Reeves – who has directed such critically acclaimed movies as LET ME IN, DAWN FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES – is behind the wheel here, and Uslan said fans need to trust the director and what he has planned for the character. “And then once you see the movie, judge the hell out of it. But I think that’s really the formula going forward,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier, I couldn’t be more enthused, as a Batman fan, that Matt Reeves is the filmmaker in charge and has selected Robert Pattinson to be his next Batman.”
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