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There may be a new Batman in town. And he’s the same as the old Batman.
Michael Keaton, who famously starred as the Caped Crusader in the Tim Burton-directed Batman movies, is in talks to reprise the character for Warner Bros.’ DC movie The Flash.
Ezra Miller is on board to star as Barry Allen, aka the Flash, in the feature that will be directed by It filmmaker Andy Muschietti.
But wait, there’s more. If a deal makes, Keaton wouldn’t just return for Flash but possibly for several other DC-oriented film projects. Sources tell THR that the role being envisioned for the veteran actor is akin to the role played by Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something of a mentor or guide or even string-puller. Batgirl is one the projects in development that could fall into that category.
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Warners had no comment.
Keaton was mainly known as a comedic actor when he nabbed the plum title role in 1989’s Batman. He initially took heat from fans that didn’t see him as imposing or chiseled, but the movie became a sensation, and the actor reprised the character in the 1992 sequel, Batman Returns. Afterward, Keaton tried to distance himself from his role and even skewered it in 2014’s Birdman, where he played an actor that once starred in superhero movies. The part earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, is currently being looked as separate from Flash and other DC Universe movies, but the Flash feature project offers an intriguing pathway between franchises: The story is said to involve not just time travel but inter-dimensional travel. This raises the idea, more tantalizing now with the Keaton development, that you can cross over from one “movie universe” to another.
Flash is eyeing a London start in spring 2021.
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