Support truly
independent journalism
Tim Burton has revealed the reason why he has no desire to make another superhero film.
The filmmaker, 65, who is set to release his long-awaited Beetlejuice Beetlejuice film starring Jenna Ortega and Michael Keaton this September, directed both Batman and Batman Returns at the start of his career.
Burton said creating superhero movies in today’s film industry is markedly different to when he worked with Keaton on the comic book blockbusters in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Speaking to Variety, the filmmaker explained his disinterest, saying: “I come at things from different points of view, so I would never say never to anything. But, at the moment, it’s not something I’d be interested in.”
The Corpse Bride director added: “I was lucky because at that time, the word ‘franchise’ didn’t exist. Batman felt slightly experimental at the time… It deviated from what the perception [of a superhero movie] might be.”
Of his creative freedom, Burton continued: “You didn’t hear that kind of studio feedback, and being in England, it was even further removed. We really just got to focus on the film and not really think about those things that now they think about even before you do it.”
Burton explained he had agreed to work on the 1992 Batman sequel, Batman Returns, because he felt “re-energised” by the film’s villains Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). However, he was quickly put off working on any subsequent instalments.
“That was when we started hearing the word franchise,” he said. “And where the studio started going, ‘What’s the black stuff coming out of the Penguin’s mouth?’ It was the first time the cold wind of that kind of thing came upon me.”
Aside from Batman, Burton had also been in talks to develop a Superman film starring Nicolas Cage. Although the movie never came to fruition, The Flash made a reference to the project in 2023 by featuring a CGI version of Cage fighting a huge spider.
Looking back on the near-production, Burton said: “I’ve worked on a couple movies that didn’t happen after working for years on them, and those are quite traumatic. I just try to focus on things that I feel strongly about and get rid of all the noise surrounding them.”
“On this last one, Beetlejuice 2, I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies.”
