Memoir of Batman Producer Inspires Stage Play on Batman Movie Rights

Batman’s tragic origin story is one of the most famous ever told across mediums. But do you know the origins of the man who put the Bat on the big screen? Michael Uslan, the DC Comics writer turned producer who purchased the Batman movie rights in 1979 with fellow producer Benjamin Melniker, has been credited as an executive producer on every film featuring the Dark Knight since 1989’s Tim Burton-directed “Batman.” Now, Tony Award-winning actor and comic creator Dan Fogler (“Fantastic Beasts” films) will play Uslan in a stage play adaptation of his 2011 memoir, “The Boy Who Loved Batman.”

Nederlander Worldwide, behind “The Who’s Tommy,” “On Your Feet!: The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan,” and “Grease,” in association with Legion M Productions, is developing the play, which was first announced by The Hollywood Reporter.

“The Boy Who Loved Batman” stage play, formerly known as “Darknights and Daydreams,” is “an inspirational comedy about one man’s vision that became a national phenomenon,” according to the official synopsis. “It’s a crazy journey that goes from New Jersey to Hollywood, comic books to the silver screen. Every hero needs a hero, even Batman.” The true story-inspired show will premiere at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida, running from October 1st to November 10th.

“Dan’s exceptional talent, comic timing, impressive stage presence, and deep, enthusiastic roots as an unabashed fanboy make him the perfect actor to take on the obviously challenging, complicated role of Michael Uslan,” Uslan told THR. “From the first moment he was given the script, Dan has been spot-on in his approach to the material, and I could not be happier that he agreed to join us on this journey.”

“I can’t wait to be back on stage again, and Batman and comic books are two of my favorite subjects,” added Fogler, who won the Tony for his role as William Barfée in the Broadway musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and who played Francis Ford Coppola in “The Offer,” about the making of “The Godfather.” “I was 12 in 1989, and seeing ‘Batman’ on screen — how he was meant to be in all his dark brooding glory — was a life-changing experience. It was electric, and I can’t wait to tell the story of how it all came to be.”

Directed by Tony winner Jeff Calhoun (“Newsies”), “The Boy Who Loved Batman” also features Paul Adam Schaefer (Broadway’s “The Phantom of the Opera”) as Imaginary Friend, Katherine Yacko (“Hamlet”) as Nancy Uslan, with Kelly Bashar, Nicholas Perez-Hoop, and Hugh Timoney portraying multiple roles including Uslan’s family members, as well as visionary Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee — who collaborated with Uslan on DC’s “Just Imagine” — and Bill Finger, the long-uncredited co-creator of Batman.

The book, which was republished as an updated second edition in 2019, chronicles the comic book-obsessed Uslan’s decade-long effort to bring the brooding Batman of the page to screen with a tone unlike the 1960s TV show that starred Adam West as the campy caped crusader alongside Burt Ward’s boy wonder Robin.

Despising the campy “Batman,” Uslan was “determined to bring the real Batman — dark, serious, burdened by a tragic past — to the silver screen,” the description reads. “Undeterred by Hollywood’s initial lackluster response, after a ten-year human endurance contest in which every major movie studio turned him down, Uslan went on to become Executive Producer on every modern Batman film, beginning with Tim Burton’s widely hailed ‘Batman’ in 1989 to Christopher Nolan’s celebrated ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy and well beyond.”

“The story of a young boy seeing his parents murdered, and then taking a vow that he would get the people responsible as well as all the other criminals out there that do terrible wrongs even if he has to walk through hell to do it was so compelling to me, I knew I had to be involved with it forever,” Uslan said in a 2011 interview for his book.

“When I saw the TV series with Adam West, I knew I couldn’t let it stand. I thought of myself as a young Bruce Wayne,” Uslan continued. “I was thrilled and horrified at what I saw. The car was cool, and they were spending money, but I was so horrified that the whole world was laughing at Batman — it just killed me. It was then that I knew that some day, some way, somehow I would bring the story of the real Batman to life. The Batman that was created in 1939: a creature of the night stalking criminals from the shadows and would one day erase those three words, ‘Pow!’ ‘Zap!’ and ‘Wam!’ from the collective consciousness of the world.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Comicbook