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NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Michael Keaton and Edward Norton -- actors who played Batman and Bruce Banner respectively on the big screen -- say they wouldn't rule out ever appearing in another superhero movie or comic-book adaptation. The pair will soon be seen in the critically acclaimed film Birdman, which is about a past-his-prime, action-movie icon who mounts a comeback in a Broadway play, only to be upstaged by a younger co-star.
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Clips of Birdman -- which was written and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu -- were shown last Friday night to an audience of thousands at New York Comic Con. Keaton and Norton also took part in a panel discussion about the film with moderator Chris Hardwick.
Pressed to say if they would entertain the prospect of appearing in a superhero franchise again, given their past experiences, both actors revealed they would under the right circumstances.
"I grew up on all of those graphic novels, the Frank Miller... I was obsessed with that stuff," Norton, 45, revealed.
"I think that it is this rich pool of stuff that has almost become a whole, modern-day canon of mythic stories for a lot of us and we kind of all sit around, hoping that someone is going to make films out of that type of material that captures how serious it felt for us at that time of our life when... Because nobody read comic books because they are cartoonish. They read them because they are dark and serious and long. That's what was great about the best ones," noted the star of 2008's The Incredible Hulk. "I think that we all know that some [film adaptations of comic books] are a swing and a miss and some really connect and some weren't even actual novels, but movies like The Matrix, for me, completely capture the sensation that I used to get reading those. So, whether it is something original or new, or whether it is one of the canon, when things like that come along, I don't ever discount the idea of doing it. It always is the same thing. It depends on with who and is it well-written and what is the vision. That's really the criteria, I think. It shouldn't be any different than any other movie."
"Yeah, exactly," Keaton, 63, agreed. "It's always who is directing, what is the casting, is the script good, what is it about.
"When [director] Tim [Burton] called and I took the script for the original Batman home and read it, I thought, 'Oh, this is interesting.' Unlike Ed, I was mostly unfamiliar with any of the superhero books and wasn't really that big of a comic-book reader and, so, I went and read it and I thought: 'Oh, well, this is never [going to get made,] not the way I see this movie. I can't imagine anyone making the movie the way I see the character. But I sure am glad to read it.' I blew through it and I met Tim the next day and he said, 'Well, what do you think?' And I go, 'All right, you want me to tell you what I really think?' And he said, 'Yeah.' And I said, 'Well...' And I started to go down the list. ... And Tim used to have that really long, great hair. I don't know if he still does. And all I remember was -- we were sitting in a window -- and he was just [nodding] and his hair was going up and down and he just kept nodding and I go, 'Is he nodding because he agrees with me?' ... I didn't know why he was nodding, yes. Then he was smiling and getting uneasy and kind of looking excited and I go, 'OK, they're not going to make that, are they?' And he said: 'I don't know. Let's find out.'"
Keaton and Burton's 1989 Batman movie went on to become a blockbuster and set a more serious tone for many future superhero movies. The actor and filmmaker reunited for the hit 1992 sequel Batman Returns.
Norton cautioned moviegoers that Birdman is not a superhero movie, but he acknowledged it is "about the superhero genre" since Keaton's character is best known for his portrayal of the film's title character when he was younger.
"The superhero genre is part of the heart of the debate of the movie," Norton added.
Co-starring Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis and Naomi Watts, Birdman is set to open in the United States Friday.
