Trevor Hogg reviews Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen by Gary Collinson…
Originally, a three-part feature posted by his own film review site Flickering Myth, Gary Collinson has expanded his exploration of the various small and big screen appearances of The Dark Knight into a book. The 256-page publication is divided into three major sections titled Live-Action Batman, Animated Batman and Batman of the Future; each film and television production is broken into categories labelled Cast, Key Crew, Story, Bringing Batman to the Screen and Reception.
Live-Action Batman starts with actor Lewis Wilson being the first to put on the cape and cowl in Batman (1943) and concludes with the various aborted movie and TV spin-offs such as Batman vs Superman which was to be helmed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot) and the Smallville (WB,CW, 2001 to 2011) influenced Bruce Wayne. Of particular interest is the chapter on the campy ABC television show Batman aired from 1966 to 1968; it is given the full series guide treatment, along with the addition of Bat-Facts that provide a behind the scenes glimpse into each of the two-part episodes.
Animated Batman delves into the several cartoon incarnations which achieved major critical acclaim and fandom with the release of Batman: The Animated Series (Fox, 1992 to 1995). “We didn’t want it to be just action-adventure,” Producer Eric Radomski stated in one of the many quotes unearthed by Collinson during his extensive research for the project. “[We wanted to] really get some heart and soul into this thing, instead of just doing another merchandisable episodic series. We wanted them to be dramatic mini-features.”
In the introduction for Batman of the Future, Gary Collinson observes, “Following the staggering success of The Dark Knight in 2008, Batman remains one of the most popular franchises of all-time and – almost seventy years after the character’s first screen appearance – the Caped Crusader is showing little sign of slowing down, with Warner Bros developing several projects to take the legendary crime-fighter into 2012 and beyond.”
If you are looking for a primer in regards to the numerous cinematic and televised incarnations of Gotham City’s favourite crime fighter then Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen will be indispensable reading material.
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada
