1989 Batmania Vids

[Gotham Knight]

Here are some vintage reactions to Keaton being cast as Batman. I'd always heard that the trailer shut up all the naysayers of Keaton's casting, but apparently that wasn't the case.

West.had an axe to grind. I don't hold it against him because he was a man who was chewed up by the Hollywood system. He went from the the top of the world to being barely able to get work.

[The Dark Knight]

West could've absolutely played a darker Batman if that was the mandate. His voice already had authority and confidence, which is intimidating on its own. I wouldn't be playing chicken with the man who snapped to say "but that's enough of this". You feel his annoyance in still talking about Batman but also being passed over. Up until that point he was pigeonholed as Batman, and suddenly he didn't even have complete ownership of it anymore. Keaton and Affleck are my top two of the darker Batman actors, but West is still my number one, and existing to the side in his own category. I'll always appreciate him.

[The Laughing Fish]

Here are some vintage reactions to Keaton being cast as Batman. I'd always heard that the trailer shut up all the naysayers of Keaton's casting, but apparently that wasn't the case.

I guess Adam West's first cameo on The Simpsons wasn't all in jest when mentioning Burton's Batman.

But what a great video. It really captures the sentiment of the skepticism surrounding Keaton's casting at the time, and the consensus surrounding Batman's psychological issues. Nowadays, discourse surrounding Batman's state of mind is infantilised with denials and gatekeeping that borders on revisionist history. Too much emphasis on this no-kill subject and less on what mental health implications does one might have by becoming a dedicated crimefighter. Most discussions surrounding the character today are a lot less mature compared to what this old news report talks about.

As for B89 deciding to capitalise on the "No Robin" sentiment at the time, I'm convinced we would've gotten Robin if Dick Grayson never became Nightwing and Jason Todd never existed.

[Kamdan]

I don't think I ever came across it. What did he talk about?

It's been a while, but I recall Peters addressing the out of the box idea of casting someone like Bill Murray at first as Batman that eventually lead to the casting of Michael Keaton, along with convincing Jack Nicholson to come on board. It was a decent sized interview and was good to hear from his perspective that's missing from the DVD special features. He's really gotten dogged down by Kevin Smith's elaborated tales of the Superman screenplay.

I'd always heard that the trailer shut up all the naysayers of Keaton's casting, but apparently that wasn't the case.

I've always understood that the point of that trailer was to dispel everyone thinking the movie was going to be a comedy, especially when Keaton and Burton were associated with that genre at the time. Material like the Wall Street Journal criticism article weren't complaining about petty details like Keaton's height and "balding" hair. They were reacting to Warner Bros. shareholders being told a lot of money was going into this new version of the character and it appeared that they were backtracking into what was considered to be antiquated at the time that would make them lose money instead of gain it.

[BatmanFurst]

I don't think I ever came across it. What did he talk about?

It's been a while, but I recall Peters addressing the out of the box idea of casting someone like Bill Murray at first as Batman that eventually lead to the casting of Michael Keaton, along with convincing Jack Nicholson to come on board. It was a decent sized interview and was good to hear from his perspective that's missing from the DVD special features. He's really gotten dogged down by Kevin Smith's elaborated tales of the Superman screenplay.

I just left a comment on one of his vids asking him to repost it. Fingers crossed.

[BatmanFurst]

Just a couple videos that cover the release of the VHS at the time.

[The Laughing Fish]

Here's an interview with Robert Wuhl promoting B89, as he talks about the time he spent with Jack Nicholson, and describing his character Alexander Knox.

[The Laughing Fish]

[The Joker]

Interesting vid about the guy who won the MTV Batmobile contest, and all that transpired afterwards.

[BatmanFurst]

This highlights the Batmania in France at the time. Unfortunately the whole thing is French with no English subtitles. Still a nice little gem though.

This user remastered the teaser in HD for the first time.