Tim Burton says he is “not interested” in making another superhero movie
In the build-up to the new installation of Beetlejuice, Tim Burton has made it very clear that he has no interest in making another superhero movie.
The 65-year-old director’s sequel to Beetlejuice will be released on September 6th. It has a star-studded cast as Michael Keaton and Jenna Ortega will take to the screen to bring the story to life. Of course, Burton is known for more than just the original Beetlejuice; in 1989 and 1992, he was at the helm of Batman and Batman Returns; however, he hasn’t made a superhero movie since.
During a recent interview with Variety, when asked about the possibility of doing another superhero movie, the director said, “I come at things from different points of view, so I would never say never to anything. But, at the moment, it’s not something I’d be interested in.”
He continued, “I was lucky because at that time, the word ‘franchise’ didn’t exist. Batman felt experimental at the time… It deviated from what the perception [of what a superhero movie] might be.”
While Burton did work on two Batman movies, he confirmed the reason he returned for the 1992 sequel was because he felt “re-energised” by the film’s villains. This is a fair point, as the portrayals of Penguin and Catwoman by Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer are still considered some of the most iconic iterations of those characters to date. Burton also confirmed, however, that the minute he felt studio interference starting to take hold, the idea of doing any other Batman movies after the sequel was a non-starter.
“That was when we started hearing the world franchise,” he recalled, “And where the studio started going, ‘What’s the black stuff coming out of the Penguin’s mouth?’ It was the first time the cold wind of that kind of thing came upon me.”
Burton was in talks to make a Superman film starring Nicholas Cage at one point, but the movie never officially got off the ground. It was given a nod in the recent Flash movie as a CGI version of Nicholas Cage as the Man of Steel made an appearance.
Burton confirmed it’s not unusual for projects he’s passionate about to not get off the ground, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a difficult process to go through. “I’ve worked on a couple movies that didn’t happen after working for years on them,” he said, “And those are quite traumatic. I just try to focus on things that I feel strongly about and get rid of all the noise surrounding them.”
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