Tim Burton’s 1989 movie Batman is widely seen as the film that started it all when it comes to the world of comic book movies that we live in today. The film has numerous iconic moments and lines of dialogue that fans still reference today, but one of them, which gets referenced in The Flash movie as well, wasn’t actually in the script and was improvised by Michael Keaton himself.
Speaking with Empire, Michael Keaton says that “Let’s get nuts,” Keaton’s famous line to Jack Nicolson’s Joker, was a line that wasn’t in the initial script. Keaton says that a lot of Batman was actually found on the set, and that included the scene where Bruce Wayne has to deal with the Joker in Vicky Vale’s apartment. Keaton indicates that a lot of different things were tried to make the scene work. In the end, he found the solution. The actor explained…
I don’t think ‘Let’s get nuts’ was in the script, that was me. That scene was never really that good as written, to be honest with you. That was one of the days where we went round and round. I think Kim’s in it, me and Jack, nobody could ever find it. I thought, ‘Okay, pressure’s on, man. Pressure. Is. On.’ I thought he’d probably said, ‘Okay, I’m kind of cornered, I only have one way to go and I’d better let this character know that we’re gonna throw down.’ There was so much figuring it out as we went along.
They certainly figured out that scene. Keaton’s attempt to “out crazy” the Joker has become one of the more well-known scenes in the film, to the point that the iconic line is referenced in The Flash trailer, which will see the actor return to the role of Batman after decades. In The Flash, the line seems to be used as a sort of call-to-action moment, though in the original Batman, the scene is quite different.
Keaton’s Batman in The Flash cast is perhaps the major selling point of the new Flash movie, as seeing the actor return to the character is a big deal for those of us that grew up with him as the big-screen Batman. The movie will also feature Ben Affleck’s version of the character. Beyond that, it’s anybody’s guess. What secrets this movie is still hiding, and what it may mean for the forthcoming newly relaunched DCU, is anybody’s guess. We’ll “get nuts” with Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne once again when The Flash arrives in theaters on June 16.
