(upbeat music) - Hey, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

This is part of a dual series, if you will.

Part of our series called "The Arts Connection," all about the arts and the state and the region and the nation.

And also "Media Matters," because media matters.

This particular program all about film as a very important form of media.

We're honored to be joined by our good friend, Michael Uslan.

Michael is original, excuse me, the originator and executive producer of the "Batman" movie franchise and also in his spare time, the chairman of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Film Commission joins us from Indiana.

Michael, great to see you.

- Thanks, Steve.

It's great to be here with you again, pal.

- Make the Indiana connection for us because it also involves your work as a faculty member at the university out there.

- Yeah.

I graduated Indiana, I got three degrees here.

And every year as kind of payback, I come back for three weeks and teach two intensive courses in the media school on the business of producing motion pictures.

- Excellent.

Michael, talk to us.

First, and we've had many conversations in the past about the "Batman" series.

For you, your passion for the "Batman" comic strip, and then ultimately what winds up happening with the movie franchise, where does it come from and when?

- I think it starts when I was a kid growing up down near Asbury Park in Ocean Township, Monmouth County.

I was on a little league team.

I had just turned eight.

I got screamed at by my coach for striking out that I looked like a clown out there.

And I went home and I sought refuge with my superheroes and my comic books.

And that trauma, that little tiny trauma at about age seven or eight led to me to follow the adventures of superheroes and be inspired by them.

And for me, "Batman" was the one who was human, I could identify with most.

He had an intense origin story, the most colorful super villains and the coolest car on earth.

And I was hooked.

- How'd you sell it, Michael?

How did you sell it to those who put the money in to start the movie franchise?

- I said I was here out of vengeance because my dear character Batman on TV was turned into a joke.

The whole world was laughing at Batman, and I had already met when I was 13 years old his creators who told me how and why he was created as a dark knight battling these very disturbed villains in the shadows.

And I wanted to restore the darkness and dignity to my hero.

So I was a kid in my 20s.

I went to the president of DC Comics and said, "I want to buy the rights to 'Batman' and make dark and serious 'Batman' movies."

And he looked at me like the poster for "Home Alone," like, "Oh my God, you know, kid, you're gonna lose all your money.

Don't you understand that since 'Batman' went off the air, the brand is as dead as a dodo?

I don't want to see you lose all your money."

He couldn't convince me.

And I'm a kid in my 20s, Steve, and I bought the rights to "Batman" because nobody else on the planet Earth showed up and then set out on my vow, on my mission to restore that darkness and dignity to "Batman."

- Where does Bruce Wayne fit into this?

- Bruce Wayne is now the secret identity really.

Just like Superman is actually Superman and he pretends to be Clark Kent.

Batman at this stage of the game pretends to be Bruce Wayne because when he was a kid and saw his parents slaughtered before his eyes, he sacrificed his childhood at that moment in time and vowed he would get the guys who did this, get all the bad guys, even if he had to walk through hell for the rest of his life.

- You know, you get asked this all the time.

I don't think of all the interviews we've done... By the way, check out our website, steveadubato.org, for previous interviews with Michael.

I don't think I've asked you this, but I've wanted to.

There have been how many different actors playing Batman in the franchise?

- Oh my God.

If you include the voice actors for animation, we are absolutely in double figures.

- Who do you think was the best?

- The best what?

That's the question.

The best Batman?

- Michael, don't be difficult.

- All right, if it's the best Batman, I say most of the Batmen have been within 25% of each other, but each of the Bruce Waynes has been completely different.

And it's all about Bruce Wayne.

It's really not so much about Batman.

So you had Michael Keaton as the driven, obsessed to the point of being psychotic guy who puts on the suit, goes out and be Batman.

You had Christian Bale, the realistic young man who's got probably post-traumatic stress syndrome and who goes out and puts on the armor.

You have Robert Pattinson as a very young Bruce Wayne drenched in the story of his parents who's trying to figure out if his mission is revenge or if it's justice.

And Ben Affleck playing Bruce Wayne at 45, doesn't want to do it anymore.

He's frustrated and pulled back into it.

So it's really the Bruce Waynes that have been so dramatically different.

If you asked me to pick which one, I would say, why don't you just ask me which is your favorite kid?

You know, it's impossible.

- Michael, before we move to the film commission, I'm curious about this, to what degree did you have a hand in impacting, influencing the making of the Batman films?

- Oh, well, I had this vision, and the vision was instilled in me by his creators.

So that vision became the creative blueprint going forward.

Steve, from the time I bought the rights to "Batman" till we finally got the first movie made took 10 years, every single studio rejected it.

Every single studio told me I was crazy.

It was like the worst idea they ever heard.

It's a long time.

- PS, since this is also part of our series, "Media Matters," which is frankly an effort to promote not just why media matters, why quality, important media, including film matters, but also with a new entity we've established, Center for Media Leadership, the website will come up, the information will come up, we're trying to promote the next, quote, generation of media leaders.

Obviously on my end, it's the broadcast, news, information, public policy programming.

For you, how important is it, as part of the "Media Matters" thinking, to help promote, develop, and encourage, particularly in light of what you just said, got rejected by so many studios, the next generation of filmmakers?

- It's essential.

It's absolutely essential.

You know, Steve, the industry is changing by the day.

It's in a state of revolution, the movie TV streaming industry.

The decentralization of Hollywood is a sea change.

The convergence and the way that one company is swallowing up another company as they consolidate is a sea change.

And there is, I think, a desperate need in a media that caters to younger people generally that we get in a stream of new voices, new perspectives, and that's why it's so essential we bring in our millennials, we bring in our Gen Zs.

This is the future and it is so important.

- Hey, Michael, does it bother you if people try to watch, or don't try, but actually try to... They watch film on a phone.

Does that bother you?

- Well, go watch "The Odyssey" on your phone or on your wristwatch and tell me you've had a wonderful experience.

I'll tell you something, Steven, and I'll use "The Odyssey" example.

My wife and I went to an 11:00 AM Thursday IMAX screening of "The Odyssey."

For the first time since before COVID, we were in a theater that was absolutely packed.

In three hours, not one person put on their cell phone, not one person talked.

At the end, everyone's clapping and I see a younger generation going, "Oh my God, is this what a communal experience inside a movie theater is supposed to be where everybody shares the experience?"

We took my two granddaughters, who are 10 and 11, to a screening of an old movie called "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" in a movie theater with 600 people on a big screen and they saw 600 people laughing at the same things.

They could not believe the magic of what they were experiencing, and that is really, really important.

- By the way, that movie, not Gene Wilder, no, who was- - Every comedian in Hollywood was in that movie.

- It's dangerous to try to show that I know about film with Michael.

Hey, Michael, the film industry in New Jersey.

As we put up the website for the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, you are the chairman of that commission.

What is the commission and why is it so important now more than ever?

- I've been on the commission now for 40 years.

I've been the chairman the last 10 years.

I mentioned before the decentralization of Hollywood that's taking place.

- What do you mean by that, by the way?

- All right, when I started in this industry 50 years ago, the decision as to where you shot a movie was a creative decision made by the director and the producer.

Today, it's a decision made by accountants and tax people.

You go where the tax incentive plan is a good one.

So you've got the tax incentives that Governor Murphy was able to get passed on a bipartisan basis in New Jersey.

Number two, you look for locations.

New Jersey is New York City's grandest backlot, the best backlot in the world.

Within one hour, we'll give you mountains, farmland, beaches, Atlantic City, urban centers, suburbia.

You can't beat it.

70% of the Union and Teamster crews that function in New York and Philadelphia actually live in New Jersey.

You don't have to travel them.

We've got more and more towns with ferry service directly to New York.

You don't have to deal with the tunnels and the bridges.

The equipment companies have moved in, the lumber companies have moved in, and we are all-inclusive.

Even the Meadowlands Arena, instead of sitting there doing nothing, has been converted into TV studios with over a thousand jobs created in the process.

We are all about economic development.

We are all about jobs and job training, and that has been an absolutely terrific asset to the people of New Jersey.

- What is the Film Ready Program?

What is that about?

- We have a unique program called Film Ready that is the envy of all the other states, and it is attracting producers, production companies, movie studios to New Jersey, because when the circus comes to town, a lot of times towns are not prepared.

They don't understand the needs of a production.

Production doesn't understand what the town needs.

So we go town by town and spend a day with the hierarchy of the town, maybe the board of education, the mayor, the town council, the police, the fire, and we let them know what this experience is, how to work together.

You don't want to overcharge permits for filming in a town.

That's not what they're gonna be there for.

They're there to use all your local businesses, all your local services, hire local people, hire local cops, and how to work together to make it a positive experience, and that's invaluable.

- Mike, before I let you go, AI and film, good thing, bad thing, what?

- AI is here.

Okay?

We have to acknowledge it's here, but here's the key.

It can only be used as a proficiency tool to save time and money.

It never should be allowed to take the place of creativity, human thinking, and art.

- Well said.

Hey, Michael, thank you as always.

Continue doing important work, not just with the film commission, not just with the "Batman" franchise, but also your work teaching out in Indiana.

Michael, thank you so much.

All the best.

- Thanks, Steve.

Take care.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Adubato Center for Media Leadership.

Newark Board of Education.

Stockton University.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The North Ward Center.

And by Hackensack Meridian Health.

Promotional support provided by ROI-NJ.

And by NJ.Com.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

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