Following their success with “Bad Boys for Life,” filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have dived right into the superhero world with two major gigs on both sides of the publisher fence.
On the one hand, they’ve helmed episodes of the just-launched Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel” for Marvel Studios. On the other, they’re currently in post-production of the “Batgirl” film for DC Films and HBO Max.
Speaking on an episode of The Playlist Podcast, the pair teased what to expect from the upcoming “Batgirl” film, which stars Leslie Grace and has Michael Keaton returning to the Bruce Wayne role.
Turns out they took a lot of inspiration from all the screen incarnations to date, even the bad ones, whilst holding up the celebrated 1990s “Batman: The Animated Series” as the goal they’re striving for:
“Obviously, the first superhero we saw was Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton Batman, so being able to work with him together with Leslie Grace, it was mind-blowing.
We tried to have that darker vibe of ‘The Animated Series’ that was really the biggest inspiration to us and it’s just a big honor and privilege to do these two projects and hopefully the fandom of both will see the homage that we do to them and will appreciate our humble contribution.
We can just say that we were inspired by all of the Gotham City’s portrayed onscreen. All the directors have such interesting visual flairs and we tried, the same as ‘Ms. Marvel,’ to do a remix of all that. You know whether it’s Matt Reeves, Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton – obviously, because we’re big, big Tim Burton fans. Of all his movies, so it’s an homage of the other things.
Even just the funky colors of Joel Schumacher. The visual flair that he brought – the neons, the dutch angles here and there. As fanboys ourselves, you know, it’s the biggest dream we could ever hope for.”
“Batgirl” was originally announced as an HBO Max exclusive release and while nothing official has been announced, Warner Bros. Discovery is rumoured to be considering a theatrical run. No date for the project has yet been indicated though.
