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Keaton's starring in a new movie by director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, Amores Perros) about a washed up superhero movie actor who's having trouble separating himself from his onscreen alter ego. The movie will also feature Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis. Apparently production begins in April.

More info:

QuoteIn the movie, Keaton will play a former actor, famous for playing an iconic superhero, who puts on a Broadway play to regain his former glory. Stone plays his fresh-out-of-rehab daughter/assistant. Watts is his co-star and Galifianakis is the play's producer.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/03/m-keaton-stone-galifianakis-watts-to-co-star.html?mid=imdb

This could be for Keaton what The Wrestler was for Mickey Rourke. Alejandro González Iñárritu is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, so it's worth keeping an eye on this one.

Yep. Plus, look what playing a pampered, spoiled rich dude with substance abuse issues did for Robert Downey, Jr. There's something to be said for an actor playing autobiographical roles as a career resuscitation.

Hm, maybe Tom Cruise should play a cult member in some future movie...

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed,  6 Mar  2013, 03:45
Yep. Plus, look what playing a pampered, spoiled rich dude with substance abuse issues did for Robert Downey, Jr. There's something to be said for an actor playing autobiographical roles as a career resuscitation.

Hm, maybe Tom Cruise should play a cult member in some future movie...

battlefield earth 2 anyone?

Quote from: thecolorsblend on Wed,  6 Mar  2013, 03:45Yep. Plus, look what playing a pampered, spoiled rich dude with substance abuse issues did for Robert Downey, Jr. There's something to be said for an actor playing autobiographical roles as a career resuscitation.

Hm, maybe Tom Cruise should play a cult member in some future movie...

Quote from: riddler on Wed,  6 Mar  2013, 05:08battlefield earth 2 anyone?

Give that man a raise!

I'm intrigued to see what the Birdman costume will look like. Will they give him a cool outfit similar to Nite Owl's in Watchmen?


Or will they play it for laughs and dress him like this?


Probably the latter, but we can always hope.

Keaton's bound to discuss his experiences playing Batman when he's promoting the film, so if nothing else we'll have that to look forward to.

Of course with that title, and the premise of a washed up Superhero actor, these two instantly came to mind.

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Very interesting. Personally I'd prefer if the movie treats "Birdman" as if it was a serious franchise - assuming Michael Keaton's character feels nostalgic about the late 80s/90s, designs like Robocop and Batman were the standard. Also, there's more potential for comedy in that compared to a blatantly silly homemade suit.

Keaton playing a washed up superhero actor sounds brilliant. With Keaton I gather he wanted to step back from films to be with his family and pretty much just chill out. As we know, the guy can act and no-one else has his quality. Looking forward to seeing what comes of this. It could be the second best thing aside from reprising Batman DKR style.

Long time no see guys!

This news has awakened me out of my "Batman Online" coma. It seems we are indeed on the verge of a Keaton renaissance.


I don't think it would make much sense using a pre-90's era type superhero costume. With this stunt casting, I think they will want a more obvious callback type costume. Zack Snyder stated that the Nite Owl & Ozymandias suits were parodying the Batman style superhero costumes of the 90's. With movies like the Arthur remake and Kick Ass, it seems to all the rage to poke fun at this era.

Apparently Edward Norton is playing the difficult actor who portrays Birdman in the stage production.

^While I think it would've been perfect if they nabed Bale for the role, I think Norton plus Keaton in a comedy sounds amazing. It'll also be fun to see Keaton adress the two things he's most famous for in one film (Batman and comedy)

I wonder how much comedy this "black comedy" is going to have? All of the director's previous movies have been extremely depressing dramas.

...after the fiasco leading up to Tim Burton's Dark Shadows, I'm taking the descriptions in these press releases with a grain of salt. It's hard to imagine Galifianakis being involved with anything other than a extremely silly comedy, but given the credentials of the rest the cast I can't help but wonder about the tone of it. The press releases are now giving it the subtitle of Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.


Some questions & random thoughts about the movie that I've been thinking about based on what I've read:

-Does the Broadway play that Keaton's character is involved with have anything to do with Birdman? Is he just trying to put it together with Norton playing the lead character in the play?

-How much of his Brdman days are we going to see? Wouldn't it have to be Forrest Gump style fake movie b-roll footage, making Keaton look younger? Will Keaton ever actually physically need to don any kind of rubber Birdman costume?

-Will Birdman be able to turn his head?

-With the addition of Edward Norton, Death to Smoochy immediately comes to mind. (Directed by Oswald Cobblepot himself)

-It's too bad its being distributed by Fox and not WB. They could have more direct references like basing the Birdmobile on the Furstmobile.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JL8iotpscM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2333796/Michael-Keaton-appears-oblivious-birdman-steps-new-film-set.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Quote

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That right there is the older, grizzled TDKR Batman. Looking good Keats.

I like the costume. It's like a cross between the Batsuit and Hawkman's outfit. I hope we'll get to see Keaton himself don it at some point in the movie.


I'm actually quite shocked to see him performing those wirework sequences himself. The article says he's doing his own stunts, but there are strict safety measures that are meant to prevent actors from doing those types of scenes themselves. It's one thing to perform wirework stunts in a controlled studio environment in front of a green screen, but it's another thing altogether to be hoisted twenty or thirty feet into the air in the middle of Times Square. He must really be into this role.


I'm pretty sure he didn't do any wirework back when he made the Batman films. In fact, the last time I remember seeing Keaton flying around on wires like that was...


I'm still not entirely clear on the plot of Birdman. I think Keaton's character is trying to stage some "legitimate theatre" as a way of reclaiming his credibility after being typecast as a superhero. So the Broadway production probably has nothing to do with the Birdman character. But the role persists in haunting him to the point where he starts to think he really is Birdman. Something like that. And in this scene he appears to be hallucinating that Birdman is following him down the street. Either that or it's an overzealous fan dressed in his old costume. Either way, it sounds like an intriguing concept for a comedy and a fresh avenue by which to approach the tired superhero movie concept.

Subtextually, it would appear to be a satire on the damaging effect a particular role can have on an actor's career (and psyche) when they become too closely identified with that character. Sort of like when Leonard Nimoy suffered from an identity crisis over his Mr Spock character. It sounds like just the role Keaton's been waiting for all these years; one that self-consciously references his earlier work and which should allow him to indulge both his comedic and dramatic acting chops.

Here's a short video someone shot on location.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxexZ-IQrts

It's interesting how after years of distancing himself from the genre, Keaton's now got two superhero-themed movies coming out in 2014: RoboCop and Birdman. This could be the best one-two punch he's delivered since 1988 when he starred in Beetlejuice and Clean and Sober. And throw Need for Speed into the mix and it's almost guaranteed to be his most commercially lucrative year for quite some time.

I know many of us have been wanting Keaton to make a comeback for a while now. I thought it was going to happen after he starred in Ridley Scott's The Company back in 2007, but it didn't. Then some people were predicting it would happen when he starred in and directed The Merry Gentleman in 2008. But again, it didn't. Then a lot of people said he was making a comeback in 2010 when he played supporting roles in The Other Guys and Toy Story 3. But still, it didn't quite happen. I think if Keaton's ever going to return to the A-list, 2014 will be the year. The Birdman role sounds like it was custom made for him – a superhero-themed comedy/drama. No other actor would fit the bill as well as Keaton. And RoboCop and Need for Speed both have the potential to be box office hits. So let's keep our fingers crossed that it all goes well for him.

This could either be a comedy masterpiece or a complete trainwreck (especially since it has Zach Galifaniakis involved  >:().  Though if it mirrors Keaton's career post-Batman, I'd be intrigued in seeing it.

Quote from: Silver Nemesis on Sat,  1 Jun  2013, 11:49
I know many of us have been wanting Keaton to make a comeback for a while now. I thought it was going to happen after he starred in Ridley Scott's The Company back in 2007, but it didn't. Then some people were predicting it would happen when he starred in and directed The Merry Gentleman in 2008. But again, it didn't. Then a lot of people said he was making a comeback in 2010 when he played supporting roles in The Other Guys and Toy Story 3. But still, it didn't quite happen. I think if Keaton's ever going to return to the A-list, 2014 will be the year. The Birdman role sounds like it was custom made for him – a superhero-themed comedy/drama. No other actor would fit the bill as well as Keaton. And RoboCop and Need for Speed both have the potential to be box office hits. So let's keep our fingers crossed that it all goes well for him.

I won't pretend I know what goes on behind closed doors in Hollywood, but for all we know that Keaton either burned bridges with some very important people, or just wanted to live a more quite life after probably being fed up of the hype that the industry creates. Maybe sometimes actors find other pursuits other than their career. For example, Peter Weller hardly ever reached A-List even after doing RoboCop, but he has interests elsewhere other than his own acting career e.g. working as a history lecturer at Syracuse University.

^From what I can glean from interviews with him is that Keaton never really cared about being a big Hollywood movie star. His Batman fame has allowed him to live the kind of lif he want to live and have the sort of career he wants, be it ding indies like The Merry Gentleman or being in slapstick comedies like The Other Guys. More power to him I say.

Yeah i think it's more of a lifestyle choice than anything else; Keaton didn't want to be a Johnny Depp type.

Seems he was fine being low key. Compare that to Val Kilmer and George Clooney both of whom attempted to parlay their star power into being A list celebrities; Clooney succeeded, Kilmer failed. But Keaton never signed on as a lead in a blockbuster after Returns again and I'm sure he had opportunities.

:-[ More pictures and video clips here:
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/nailbiter111/news/?a=80766

Keaton is in really good shape for his age but, oh my, that Homer underpant...

(yes, agreed, really hope this is a sort of "comeback" for Keaton)

This sounds potentially awesome and hopefully it might also but the Keaton Batman films in the spotlight once again.

I also find it amusing that Keaton is playing a character called 'birdman' because when he goes to rescue the Ice Princess in 'Batman Returns' she tells him not to worry about being framed for her kidnap since she can always tell the police she was taken by an 'ugly little birdman with fish breath'.  The problem of course is that it now seems she was in fact speaking to 'Birdman'.  ;D

In B89, doesn't Joker call out "Up in the Air, Junior Birdman.  Miss me?" after Batman blows up Axis Chemicals?  I know he was quoting an old song, but with both mentions in his Batman films, Birdman is the perfect name for Keaton's Batman counterpart in this movie.

Quote from: BatmAngelus on Wed, 11 Sep  2013, 20:17
In B89, doesn't Joker call out "Up in the Air, Junior Birdman.  Miss me?" after Batman blows up Axis Chemicals?  I know he was quoting an old song, but with both mentions in his Batman films, Birdman is the perfect name for Keaton's Batman counterpart in this movie.

;D Yes, he does.  Brilliant observation BatmAngelus.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIxMMv_LD5Q

This film's been getting a lot of Oscar buzz lately. Apparently the preview screenings met with positive reactions and it's now scheduled to open the Venice Film Festival in August. Several analysts are predicting Keaton might finally get an Academy Award nomination.

http://www.awardscircuit.com/oscar-predictions/2014-oscar-predictions-best-actor/
http://theoscarbuzz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/michael-keaton-this-morning-came.html
http://awardswatch.com/predictions/predictions-chart-best-actor-2014/

According to Wikipedia, Keaton is credited as playing Riggan Thomson/Birdman and Benjamin Kanes is credited as playing Young Birdman. It was clearly Kanes wearing the suit in the location photographs that appeared on the internet last year.


But the poster glimpsed in the teaser appears to show Keaton himself wearing the costume. It's hard to tell, but I'm fairly certain that's him under the cowl.


It looks like they've digitally de-aged him to make him look like he did in his late thirties/early forties. Hopefully we'll get to see the older Keaton as he is now wearing the suit, complete with the cowl and black eye makeup, and speaking in that intimidating voice from the trailer. He could become the first actor to be nominated for an Academy Award for playing a superhero (even though the superhero is apparently a figment of his imagination).

Several online sources are reporting that the film is presented as one continuous shot, similar to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948). Of course Rope was actually filmed in several separate takes; a technique which Hitchcock disguised through subtle edits. Likewise Birdman will need to have been shot in numerous different takes, what with all the special effects and day-to-night transitions involved. But it'll be interesting to see if those takes are presented as a single shot without any edits. The cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, won an Oscar back in March for his work on Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity (2013), which showcased a number of impressively long takes. Will he take it to the next level with Birdman and assemble the whole film into one unbroken shot?

And did anyone else notice that after Keaton punches Norton towards the end of the trailer, he makes a fist with his right middle and index fingers extended? It's the same fighting stance he's depicted using in some of the Batman model kits.

The early reviews are in. It's currently sitting at a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (only one negative review so far), with a 100% rating amongst 'Top Critics'. And it has a Metascore of 90%. Keaton's Oscar nomination is looking more and more likely. Though whether he'll actually win remains to be seen.

I really want to see this one, then.

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Sounds an awful lot like Beware the Gray Ghost. I mean, at face value, the main character is a washed-up actor trying to relive his past glories playing a superhero heavily inspired by Batman. In the end, the character reprises their role, and is met with fame by a new generation of audiences. And the biggest connection, both played by an "older" Batman actor. The scene of the Birdman picture frame being smashed seemed heavily inspired by a corresponding scene in the episode. I'd be surprised if it's coincidence. Either way, I'm looking forward to it (a lot of other good things borrowed from BTAS). Of course, seeing Keaton back in action is the best part.

Here is a B-Roll clip I found of Keaton wearing the Birdman Costume and man does he look awesome.  I literally got chills seeing him in the suit and it makes me wish he was playing BATMAN again.

http://youtu.be/NEkOTjPE97c

I think this is the closest to a new Keaton Batman that we'll ever get.

Just got back from watching Birdman.

Absolutely loved it!!! Keaton was, of course, great. As well as Ed Norton, Naomi Watts, and Emma Stone in their respective roles.

Can't wait to pick it up on Blu ray in a couple of weeks.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting; a very good insight how actors who are typecast into roles carry this insecurity and shadow around them when their careers go nowhere.

My favourite scene is where Keaton tells off the theatre critic by saying "What has to happen in a person's life to become a critic anyway?", and begins a rant about how lifeless art critics are. I clapped my hands in appreciation.  ;D

I also enjoyed how Keaton's Birdman persona is telling him that audiences only crave for mindless action and not depressing philosophy, as Manhattan is suddenly under attack by an alien invasion.

But here's the thing: I didn't think Birdman was as good as it was hyped up to be. Don't get me wrong, it's by no means a bad movie, but I wouldn't call it brilliant either. I'd say it's a solid movie to watch but not something I'd want to watch over and over again.

As for Michael Keaton? Good solid performance, but I'll be honest: I do believe it was a bit overrated. I was very disappointed that we didn't get to see enough of the Birdman persona. I thought he was going to appear every now and then similar to Beetlejuice, especially how funny he was in that Manhattan scene. But that wasn't really what the movie was about. It's about how an egocentric and unstable actor who is so desperate to leave a meaningful mark in the entertainment industry that he was neglecting his relationships with his family and friends, while fighting his own demons of his most famous role that he became ashamed of. The scene where he has a tantrum in his dressing room while his Birdman voice tells him that he's washed up is something I hope Keaton never experienced in real life. The same goes for other actors who are currently playing iconic superhero roles right now.

In short: Birdman is good, but a bit overhyped.

All the "Best Picture" buzz going around is legit.

From a cinematic aspect, the film is a piece of art. The camera work is solid and becomes a key element in the storytelling. Same goes for editing, set design, and so on and so forth.

The performances are as solid as it gets from everyone in the cast. Keaton as the lead is an absolute BEAST and delivers arguably one of the best performances of his career, with the Golden Globe being justly deserved. Norton is great and it was nice to see Galifianakis being comedic in his career without having to resort into 'uh oh fatty fell down' mode once again.

The comedy is great, the drama feels real and emotional, and the story, in my estimation, unfolds in such a fantastic way.

Without going into Spoiler territory here; throughout the film, reality blends seamlessly between actual events only to suddenly careen into Riggin's (Keaton) imagination and then back again. Rigging Thompson is a train wreck of a character, and for me, it is unbelievably entertaining to watch him struggle with his life. I always enjoy films that hold an honest mirror up to reality and this film does that without pulling any punches.

And the ending....well ... go see it for yourself!  8)

I saw the movie when it first came out, and loved it.

Keaton's character is most definitely a disturbed individual longing for greatness. In Birdman Keaton showed why he was such a phenomenal Batman. Because most of the character is pschologically based.

In Birdman he trashes a room and then has a perfectly civilised conversation with someone only moments after. He can make the ridiculous seem normal. When he's getting verbally blasted by his daughter he sits in stunned silence. You feel his soul being eroded. I don't think any other actor quite gets so much across without even speaking.

Keaton deserved The Oscar. He was snubbed as far as I am concerned. What the f*#* does it take for the right people to win one of these bloody things? If Keaton died of a drug overdose ala Heath Ledger it would've been his.

Quote from: The Dark Knight on Mon, 23 Feb  2015, 05:52
Keaton deserved The Oscar. He was snubbed as far as I am concerned. What the f*#* does it take for the right people to win one of these bloody things? If Keaton died of a drug overdose ala Heath Ledger it would've been his.

That's one way to look at it. You can also look at it from my perspective: who gives a fark about awards ceremonies? I already know Keaton is a fine actor just by watching him thank you very much.

Besides:

• Keaton won tons of accolades for his role in Birdman;
• and I especially stopped taking the Academy Awards seriously when that piece of crap Juno won Best Original Screenplay.

And that's all true. It's just a damn shame he wasn't acknowledged with the big one. But whatever. The Academy get it wrong on a regular basis. This snub just makes me like Keaton even more.

Didn't watch the Oscars, never do really, but glad to read this morning that Birdman won 'Best Picture' this year.

It deserved it.

Alejandro González Iñárritu's previous films were wonderfully shot, and I'm glad he's gained even more international recognition following last night's win. Huzzah!  ;D

By the way, I can't be the only one who thinks that Keaton's Birdman voice is a subtle parody of Bale's Batman voice, right? The only difference is Keaton's voice sounds WAY cooler.  8)

Apparently Batman was in fact the original Birdman:

Quote"Kane's initial design of a red-costumed, mechanical-winged crime fighter called "Bird-Man" was reworked by colleague Bill Finger into the gray and black clad, mysterious, dark knight detective Bat-Man. Combining the swashbuckling of Douglas Fairbanks, the detective skills of Sherlock Holmes, the dark costuming and socialite alter ego of the Shadow, and the technological utility belt of Doc Savage, Finger and Kane managed to satisfy the editor's edict, and their creation, now known as Batman, has joined Superman as perhaps the world's two finest superheroes."

I love strange coincidences.  ;D