LIFE LESSONS FROM BATMAN'S
"PROTECTOR & DEFENDER"
Michael Uslan explains how he went from comic book aficionado to one of cinema’s most successful producers. All it took was passion, chutzpah, and a refusal to take “no” for an answer.
Written by Barry Lyga
"PROTECTOR & DEFENDER"
Michael Uslan explains how he went from comic book aficionado to one of cinema’s most successful producers. All it took was passion, chutzpah, and a refusal to take “no” for an answer.
Written by Barry Lyga
You can’t be a comic book nerd or a fan of superhero cinema without knowing some of Michael Uslan’s story. He’s lived the fanboy dream, after all—as a child he fell in love with Batman, and then, through a combination of determination and a soupçon of luck, he grew up to control a substantial portion of the character’s legend. He had been so crushed by the campy 1960s Batman TV series, a portrayal that infected pop culture with an ersatz vision of Uslan’s beloved Dark Knight, that it changed the course of his life. Like young Bruce Wayne vowing vengeance for the murder of his parents, Uslan swore—at the tender of age of 14—to rectify the harm done to Batman.
A lot of us make vows at a young age. Uslan actually carried through on his. The New Jersey Hall of Fame Inductee (2025) and current Essex County resident has produced 90-plus films over the past 30 years, including some of the most iconic superhero films ever made, from Tim Burton’s groundbreaking Batman (1989) through to new cult classic Joker: Folie à Deux (2024).
His path was as eclectic as Uslan himself, now a septuagenarian raconteur who comes across as perhaps half his age. The son of a New Jersey stonemason (from Exit 105, if you’re wondering), Uslan worked for his father over the summers as a teenager. His father loved the work, but as Uslan describes it, “It was horrible!” Rather than push his son into the family business, Uslan’s father encouraged Michael to find something he loved as much as he himself loved stonework. “You need to find your bricks and stones,” Uslan recalls his father telling him. “Follow your passion.”
There was never any question what that passion was: Comic books. Superheroes. And especially: Batman. The vengeful hero who needed someone to avenge that TV show.
A lot of us make vows at a young age. Uslan actually carried through on his. The New Jersey Hall of Fame Inductee (2025) and current Essex County resident has produced 90-plus films over the past 30 years, including some of the most iconic superhero films ever made, from Tim Burton’s groundbreaking Batman (1989) through to new cult classic Joker: Folie à Deux (2024).
His path was as eclectic as Uslan himself, now a septuagenarian raconteur who comes across as perhaps half his age. The son of a New Jersey stonemason (from Exit 105, if you’re wondering), Uslan worked for his father over the summers as a teenager. His father loved the work, but as Uslan describes it, “It was horrible!” Rather than push his son into the family business, Uslan’s father encouraged Michael to find something he loved as much as he himself loved stonework. “You need to find your bricks and stones,” Uslan recalls his father telling him. “Follow your passion.”
There was never any question what that passion was: Comic books. Superheroes. And especially: Batman. The vengeful hero who needed someone to avenge that TV show.
A DREAM THAT WOULD NOT BE DENIED
Uslan began shaking up the status quo’s idea of the Caped Crusader while an undergraduate at Indiana University, teaching a course on comic books at a time when they weren’t considered serious academic fodder. Such chutzpah in the 1970s got plenty of national attention, which led to the folks at DC Comics recruiting him. Uslan leapt at the opportunity, spending summers at DC’s offices in Manhattan, then the school year in Indiana.
With his entry into the world of comics secure, Uslan wasted no time approaching Sol Harrison, DC Comics’ legendary president and the man who worked on some of the very first comic books ever produced. When Uslan inquired as to the movie rights for Batman, Harrison protested: “Michael, nobody’s interested in him!”
It was, of course, a different era. Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, before X-Men, before even Superman: The Movie (1978). Comic books and their heroes were considered either the nadir of childish trash or—even worse—seductions into a life of debauchery, crime, and perversion. No one thought they could be worth exploiting on the silver screen.
Uslan would not be denied, though. Harrison urged him to get some real showbiz credentials before talking turkey, so Uslan got a job as a lawyer at United Artists, where he ran business affairs for such movies as the first three Rocky films and Apocalypse Now (“a crisis every damn day!” he recalls).
He returned to Harrison and DC at the age of 27. “Sol,” he announced, “I want to buy the rights to Batman and I want to make dark and serious Batman movies and show the world.”
And so, along with his partner Ben Melniker, whom Uslan rightly calls “a legend in the business,” Uslan acquired the movie rights to Batman in 1979. The world scarcely noticed.
But the world would.
Uslan began shaking up the status quo’s idea of the Caped Crusader while an undergraduate at Indiana University, teaching a course on comic books at a time when they weren’t considered serious academic fodder. Such chutzpah in the 1970s got plenty of national attention, which led to the folks at DC Comics recruiting him. Uslan leapt at the opportunity, spending summers at DC’s offices in Manhattan, then the school year in Indiana.
With his entry into the world of comics secure, Uslan wasted no time approaching Sol Harrison, DC Comics’ legendary president and the man who worked on some of the very first comic books ever produced. When Uslan inquired as to the movie rights for Batman, Harrison protested: “Michael, nobody’s interested in him!”
It was, of course, a different era. Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, before X-Men, before even Superman: The Movie (1978). Comic books and their heroes were considered either the nadir of childish trash or—even worse—seductions into a life of debauchery, crime, and perversion. No one thought they could be worth exploiting on the silver screen.
Uslan would not be denied, though. Harrison urged him to get some real showbiz credentials before talking turkey, so Uslan got a job as a lawyer at United Artists, where he ran business affairs for such movies as the first three Rocky films and Apocalypse Now (“a crisis every damn day!” he recalls).
He returned to Harrison and DC at the age of 27. “Sol,” he announced, “I want to buy the rights to Batman and I want to make dark and serious Batman movies and show the world.”
And so, along with his partner Ben Melniker, whom Uslan rightly calls “a legend in the business,” Uslan acquired the movie rights to Batman in 1979. The world scarcely noticed.
But the world would.
DISCOVERING THE GAME-CHANGING "BIG IDEA"
“I went out to Hollywood thinking everybody was going to line up at my doorstep, seeing the potential for animation, toys, games, sequels,” Uslan recalls. “Instead, I got turned down by every single studio in Hollywood. They said I was crazy. They said it was the worst idea they ever heard. ‘You can’t do dark superheroes.’ ‘You can’t do comic book movies.’ ‘You can’t make a movie out of an old TV series.’ We were rejected by everyone.”
At Uslan’s lowest, an executive took pity on him and offered to make a Batman movie…but only if it was “that funny pot-belly, pow, zap, wham guy from TV, because that’s the only Batman audiences will remember and love.” Uslan turned down the offer, certain he’d killed his movie career before it even began.
He credits Melniker with rejuvenating his spirit, pointing out Uslan’s love for the character and honor for the creators’ integrity. “You have this vision…” Melniker told him. “You’re Batman’s protector and defender. You’re Batman’s Batman!”
The two picked themselves up off the mat and moved forward. It took 10 years, but they eventually connected with a young former Disney animator named Tim Burton, who’d just released the cult classic Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985). Burton was unfamiliar with the Batman oeuvre, so Uslan curated his entry into the world of the Caped Crusader to “keep him away from the silly crap.” The result was Burton delving into classic Batman tales, and then declaring, “If we are going to make the first dark and serious movie about a comic book superhero…this movie cannot be about Batman!”
Uslan was stunned. “After I fainted and they revived me, [Burton explained] this has to be about Bruce Wayne. ‘We need to show a Bruce Wayne so obsessed, so driven…that audiences will believe that the guy will get dressed up as a bat and go out and fight a guy who looks like the Joker.’ I call it Tim Burton’s big idea,” Uslan says. “I always refer to it as a big idea because it was a game-changer, not just for Batman, but for all comic book movies.”
The rest is Michael Keaton hurling Jack Nicholson off a skyscraper-sized cathedral into cinematic history.
Did Uslan ever imagine that this would end up becoming his life’s work?
“No, no! I thought it was going to be a movie, a job, a mission,” he says. “And then I would say, ‘Mission accomplished.’ I had no idea that it would become my life. And it has absolutely become my life.”
That “life” includes executive producing all of the Batman movies in the 1990s (which later starred Val Kilmer and George Clooney), then the Christopher Nolan–directed films (featuring Christian Bale as the Dark Knight), followed by Ben Affleck’s interpretation of the character from Zack Snyder’s Justice League films, to the Batman-adjacent Joker films starring Joaquin Phoenix, and finally Robert Pattinson’s brooding young emo version of Bruce Wayne.
“I went out to Hollywood thinking everybody was going to line up at my doorstep, seeing the potential for animation, toys, games, sequels,” Uslan recalls. “Instead, I got turned down by every single studio in Hollywood. They said I was crazy. They said it was the worst idea they ever heard. ‘You can’t do dark superheroes.’ ‘You can’t do comic book movies.’ ‘You can’t make a movie out of an old TV series.’ We were rejected by everyone.”
At Uslan’s lowest, an executive took pity on him and offered to make a Batman movie…but only if it was “that funny pot-belly, pow, zap, wham guy from TV, because that’s the only Batman audiences will remember and love.” Uslan turned down the offer, certain he’d killed his movie career before it even began.
He credits Melniker with rejuvenating his spirit, pointing out Uslan’s love for the character and honor for the creators’ integrity. “You have this vision…” Melniker told him. “You’re Batman’s protector and defender. You’re Batman’s Batman!”
The two picked themselves up off the mat and moved forward. It took 10 years, but they eventually connected with a young former Disney animator named Tim Burton, who’d just released the cult classic Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985). Burton was unfamiliar with the Batman oeuvre, so Uslan curated his entry into the world of the Caped Crusader to “keep him away from the silly crap.” The result was Burton delving into classic Batman tales, and then declaring, “If we are going to make the first dark and serious movie about a comic book superhero…this movie cannot be about Batman!”
Uslan was stunned. “After I fainted and they revived me, [Burton explained] this has to be about Bruce Wayne. ‘We need to show a Bruce Wayne so obsessed, so driven…that audiences will believe that the guy will get dressed up as a bat and go out and fight a guy who looks like the Joker.’ I call it Tim Burton’s big idea,” Uslan says. “I always refer to it as a big idea because it was a game-changer, not just for Batman, but for all comic book movies.”
The rest is Michael Keaton hurling Jack Nicholson off a skyscraper-sized cathedral into cinematic history.
Did Uslan ever imagine that this would end up becoming his life’s work?
“No, no! I thought it was going to be a movie, a job, a mission,” he says. “And then I would say, ‘Mission accomplished.’ I had no idea that it would become my life. And it has absolutely become my life.”
That “life” includes executive producing all of the Batman movies in the 1990s (which later starred Val Kilmer and George Clooney), then the Christopher Nolan–directed films (featuring Christian Bale as the Dark Knight), followed by Ben Affleck’s interpretation of the character from Zack Snyder’s Justice League films, to the Batman-adjacent Joker films starring Joaquin Phoenix, and finally Robert Pattinson’s brooding young emo version of Bruce Wayne.
USHERING IN THE NEW ERA OF NEW JERSEY FILM PRODUCTION
Beyond the borders of Gotham City, Uslan’s career has seen him bring DC horror mainstays Swamp Thing and Constantine to the silver screen, along with producing the Nicolas Cage–starring National Treasure. What began as a vow to rectify a harm has become a lifetime of movie achievements, including Uslan’s current position as chairman of the New Jersey Film Commission.
The Garden State is well positioned to capitalize on movie production into the next decade, with Netflix building a studio at Old Fort Monmouth, Lionsgate building in Newark, and a 300-acre studio boasting 23 soundstages going up in Bayonne. (Paramount has already leased five of them for 10 years.)
As you can imagine, Uslan is sanguine about the situation.
“The industry is in a state of revolution,” he says. “It is changing literally by the day for many reasons. So we have a terrific tax-incentive plan that works for the people of New Jersey, because it’s all about economic development, jobs, and job training. Are we going to be competing with New York? Absolutely not. Go to New York. Go shoot Times Square. Go get the Empire State Building. But New Jersey is the greatest, biggest backlot the world has ever seen. In one hour, we can give you mountains, farmlands, Atlantic City, urban cities, suburbia. We got it all.”
Does this mean New Jersey is now Hollywood East? “No,” Uslan replies without a trace of irony. “Hollywood is New Jersey West.”
And what would Michael Uslan of today say to the kid who just made a vow to his future self? “What you need to do is what my dad said. Follow your passion, follow your passion. How do you jump the Grand Canyon?” he asks. “How do you make your dreams come true? Comes back to the same thing.”
Find your bricks and stones.
Michael Uslan’s memoir duology--The Boy Who Loved Batman and Batman’s Batman—are available in print and in audio, read by Uslan himself. The Boy Who Loved Batman is slated to debut on Broadway from Nederlander Worldwide.
Beyond the borders of Gotham City, Uslan’s career has seen him bring DC horror mainstays Swamp Thing and Constantine to the silver screen, along with producing the Nicolas Cage–starring National Treasure. What began as a vow to rectify a harm has become a lifetime of movie achievements, including Uslan’s current position as chairman of the New Jersey Film Commission.
The Garden State is well positioned to capitalize on movie production into the next decade, with Netflix building a studio at Old Fort Monmouth, Lionsgate building in Newark, and a 300-acre studio boasting 23 soundstages going up in Bayonne. (Paramount has already leased five of them for 10 years.)
As you can imagine, Uslan is sanguine about the situation.
“The industry is in a state of revolution,” he says. “It is changing literally by the day for many reasons. So we have a terrific tax-incentive plan that works for the people of New Jersey, because it’s all about economic development, jobs, and job training. Are we going to be competing with New York? Absolutely not. Go to New York. Go shoot Times Square. Go get the Empire State Building. But New Jersey is the greatest, biggest backlot the world has ever seen. In one hour, we can give you mountains, farmlands, Atlantic City, urban cities, suburbia. We got it all.”
Does this mean New Jersey is now Hollywood East? “No,” Uslan replies without a trace of irony. “Hollywood is New Jersey West.”
And what would Michael Uslan of today say to the kid who just made a vow to his future self? “What you need to do is what my dad said. Follow your passion, follow your passion. How do you jump the Grand Canyon?” he asks. “How do you make your dreams come true? Comes back to the same thing.”
Find your bricks and stones.
Michael Uslan’s memoir duology--The Boy Who Loved Batman and Batman’s Batman—are available in print and in audio, read by Uslan himself. The Boy Who Loved Batman is slated to debut on Broadway from Nederlander Worldwide.
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This story appeared in the inaugural issue of Socko! Magazine [May, 2026]. Click here to subscribe
Barry Lyga is a lifelong comic book reader and the author of 30 novels, including the origin of the MCU’s Thanos in Thanos: Titan Consumed and the New York Times best-selling I Hunt Killers trilogy, which spins off into a new series this June with Every Hunter Is Hunted. You can find him online on Bluesky and Instagram, as well as at barrylyga.com.
