Incoming Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made waves when he cancelled Batgirl, a made-for-HBO Max movie that was basically complete and had cost the studio some $90 million. The film, directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, would have starred Leslie Grace in the title role, as well as Michael Keaton as an older Batman. None of us will ever see it, but Warner Bros. held “funeral screenings” for the cast and crew, and some impressions are leaking out.
The Wrap reporter Umberto Gonzales was able to talk to an anonymous someone who attended one of these screenings, and shared what they had to say with Erik Davis. According to Gonzales’ source, the Batgirl movie looked like “a very expensive CW pilot.” While “it was certainly not the worst superhero movie” this person had ever seen — there’s a lot of competition there — they understand why Zaslav and company decided to junk it and write it off for tax purposes.
“It’s not really a strong film, the tone is just very CW, lacking in depth, lighter and more comic book-like … It’s basically an hour and forty minute CW pilot with a pretty good action set piece at the end from what I’m told,” Gonzales relayed. “It’s obviously shot for television … so everything is in the center of the screen and I’m being told it just doesn’t feel cinematic, which is something they probably could have corrected if they did some additional photography. But ultimately, the powers that be decided it wasn’t worth the tens of millions it would have cost to do that.”
There are definitely people for whom “it looks like a CW pilot” would be a good thing, but I think I get the meaning.
Michael Keaton is “good” in the Batgirl movie
Gonzales’ source also talked about how Michael Keaton fared in the film. “I was told, ‘He was good,'” Gonzales said. “He’s playing Bruce Wayne/Batman, age appropriate. He’s got white hair when he’s Bruce Wayne and the kicker is that his Batman is ‘retired,’ so he obviously pops into help and advise Barbara Gordon. He’s not really that much in it, but he has a presence when he’s in it and it’s sort of a pivotal cameo when he pops in and out.”
And that may all we ever get of Batgirl, unless there’s a groundswell of support and it has a Snyder Cut-like second life. Stranger things have happened maybe.
As for Keaton, you’ll still be able to see him as an older Batman in The Flash in 2023. That movie is also a headache for Warner Bros. Discovery, but for different reasons:
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h/t SyFy Wire