Christina Hodson Was Apparently Working On A Batman Beyond Movie For Michael Keaton, But Not Anymore
It's been a week full of rumors about the future of the DC film universe, and some of them have just been substantiated by The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision newsletter. Among them? News that "Birds of Prey" and "The Flash" screenwriter Christina Hodson was working on a script for a "Batman Beyond" film spun off from "The Flash," which the trade confirms after the scoop was earlier shared on The Hot Mic by Jeff Sneider and by The Wrap's Umberto Gonzalez.
Unfortunately, the latest update says Hodson's script is, at the very least, on pause in the wake of James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over what was recently renamed DC Studios as co-CEOs and co-chairs. According to Heat Vision, Hodson had already pitched her script and started writing it before being told to stop about two weeks after the DC overhaul.
While this sounds like bad news for fans of Michael Keaton's take on the Caped Crusader (and maybe also the much-loved animated Batman series that ran from 1999 to 2001), Gunn has been pretty clear that some news reports about what's happening behind closed doors at DC may be jumping the gun. Yesterday, Gunn took to Twitter to address a report from earlier this week about the future of Wonder Woman, Superman, and more, saying, "some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven't decided yet whether it's true or not."
The film would reportedly be a Flash spinoff
On Thursday, Gunn also said that he's currently in the process of "building the next ten years of story" for the studio, and that fans will have to wait for a clearer picture of what's on the horizon for projects in flux. "We are giving these characters & the stories the time & attention they deserve & we ourselves still have a lot more questions to ask & answer," he tweeted.
So while it's possible that this project we're only now hearing about now is on pause, it's not necessarily out of the question in DC's future. Regardless, the script in development sounds like catnip for classic DC fans. The pun there is intended, since THR reports that the feature script was set to reunite the Caped Crusader with Catwoman for a possible romance. Since Keaton's Batman is set to appear in "The Flash," and Hodson's "Batman Beyond" story would reportedly include that version of the hero, that would seem to imply the return of another star from Tim Burton's Batman era.
Michelle Pfeiffer played Selina Kyle in the 1992 Tim Burton film "Batman Returns," and though THR indicates that it's unclear whether or not the actress planned to return to the role for the "Batman Beyond" story, it would certainly make sense in the grand scheme of things. Personally, I'm hopeful about the future of this project, given that Hodson's "Birds of Prey" script is aces, and she's already been on the receiving end of one axed project in the form of "Batgirl." Plus, who would turn down more Keaton Batman?! We'll keep you posted as the story develops.