It can be weird to think about this, in the wake of the rise, and then the sort of listless, still-pretty-profitable dead man’s float of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but superhero movies were once passion projects, of the sort pushed for largely by Hollywood weirdos who’d managed to get hold of some measure of unexpected clout. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies weren’t quite as individualistic as, say, Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, but they still showed off both Raimi’s passion for the character, and his taste for stylistic flair; even his middling Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, made 20 years later, and from within the well-polished Marvel machine, was able to smuggle some of that old-school Raimi feel into itself at its margins.
All of which leads us to ask a simple question: Dear Hollywood, won’t you let Sam Raimi make a Batman?
This plea courtesy of an interview Raimi gave to Movieweb this week, attached to his new thriller Send Help. The Evil Dead mastermind was asked what other superhero movie brands he’d like to tackle, and he was not shy about laying out a wishlist that we can’t help but imagine he was hoping might get forwarded to James Gunn’s desk over at DC Studios:
I love Batman. I tried to make a Batman film. I couldn’t get the rights. I love The Shadow. I also couldn’t get the rights to that one. But, um, Superman’s always been one of my favorites. Yeah, there’s a tremendous amount of DC characters that I love, and it would just take the writers to come up with an original story based on their character, that’s true to the character and part of their real universe, not something that disappoints the fans, but something that’s based on the fans love of the character and brings out the best moment of those characters and their proper conflicts, or the right challenges for the right hero. If it was a story that had a real journey for that particular individual. Then I’d love to make the movie.
Superman is, of course, pretty busy at the moment, and we’re not sure Hollywood is necessarily beating down the door to get another Shadow movie made. But the last time Hollywood passed on a Raimi Bat-pitch, we ended up with the entertaining, but also extremely divisive, Joel Schumacher movies; what’s the worst thing that happens this time if you finally let Raimi take a crack at the Dark Knight, James?
Keep scrolling for more great stories.