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‘Batman’ mogul produces a homecoming at Deal JCC

by Jill Garbi
Special to NJ Jewish News

September 6, 2011

Like any superhero worth his cape, Michael Uslan has an origins story.

In 1966, when he was a teenage comic books fan growing up in Monmouth County, ABC began to air the campy TV action comedy Batman starring Adam West. Uslan made it his goal to one day restore dignity to one of his favorite comics characters.

“I was horrified that the whole world was laughing at Batman,” said Uslan. “I swore I would find a way to show everybody the true Batman, the way he was created in 1939 as a creature of the night stalking criminals from the shadows. I wanted to eliminate from the collective consciousness of the world those three little words: ‘Pow,’ ‘Zap,’ and ‘Wham.’”

Twenty-three years later, Uslan became the executive producer of Batman, a feature film starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger. It earned an Academy Award for art direction and more than $400 million at the box office.

MORE: http://njjewishnews.com/article/monmouth/batman-mogul-produces-a-homecoming-at-deal-jcc

Interview: ‘The Dark Knight’ Returns in a Book By Executive Producer Michael Uslan

CHICAGO – The unassuming gentleman at a table signing books at last weekend’s Chicago Comic Con was none other than “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” executive producer Michael Uslanz. He brought Batman back to the screen in 1989 and has produced all the films since including the upcoming highly anticipated Christopher Nolanz finale “The Dark Knight Rises”.

Uslan turned a childhood love of the comics into being a prime motivator and producer for the Batman films, which essentially kicked off the current wave of super hero movies and made “The Dark Knight” the second highest grossing film in history. He was at the Comic Con to sign his new book, “The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir.”

He began his career as an academic, convincing Indiana University to sponsor the first accredited course on comic books. While studying law and teaching at IU, he was constantly sending out resumes to the film industry, and at the age of 28 convinced Warner Bros. to give him the rights to the Swamp Thing free of charge. When he began to pitch a darker version of Batman to the studios, he had several rejections primarily because of the campy 1960s Batman TV show, and the association that comic books were for kids. The release of “Batman” in 1989 proved all those rejections wrong.

HollywoodChicago.com caught up with Uslan at the Chicago Comic Con, and he spoke of a passion for comics and The Batman that has been a life-long love.

READ THE INTERVIEW: http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/15305/interview-the-dark-knight-returns-in-a-book-by-producer-michael-uslan

ORDER THIS BOOK: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Loved-Batman-Memoir/dp/0811875504