Batgirl: Glasgow streets transformed for filming with Christmas market for new movie
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Workers could be seen building a Christmas market in the Trongate area of the city on Tuesday, while others hung Christmas decorations in a shop window and painted out street names.
Leslie Grace will play the title role in the Batgirl film, which will also star Mummy actor Brendan Fraser and JK Simmons.
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Art director Nigel Evans and production designer Christopher Glass were seen walking around the area on Tuesday.
Crew continue to prepare the set of the new Batgirl movie in Glasgow (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images).
Road closures will be in place in the Merchant City area of Glasgow over several days in January for filming.
Batgirl will focus on Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham police commissioner Jim.
The movie, expected to debut on the HBO Max streaming service in 2022, will be directed by Bad Boys For Life filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
Roads in Glasgow city centre are being closed as film crews descend on the city for the upcoming Batgirl movie which will see Leslie Grace play the title role and a return of Michael Keaton in his role as Batman. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images).
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Jim Gordon: 8 Great Depictions Of The Gotham Cop In Batman Movies And TV Shows
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Jeffrey Wright made history as soon as he joined The Batman cast as James “Jim” Gordon, becoming the first Black actor to ever play the trusted Gotham City cop (most commonly referred to in comics and DC movies as the city’s Police Commissioner). Of course, each of the previous portrayals of this unmasked ally of the Dark Knight from various comic book adaptations are special and important in their owns ways, but only a chosen few have stood out to true Batfans.
As a Batfan myself, I thought I would share my picks for the all-time best James Gordon depictions in Batman movies and TV shows we have seen so far. So, let’s flip on the Batsignal and start things off with a portrayal that surely no list of this kind would be complete without.
(Image credit: CBS)
Neil Hamilton (Batman, Batman: The Movie)
I will admit, I would call Neil Hamilton’s overly cheery, occasionally fourth wall-breaking performance as Commissioner Gordon in the 1960s Batman TV series and theatrical spin-off one of the cheesiest and least badass depictions of the character to ever grace the screen. However, not only does the portrayal perfectly match the fun, campy tone of the series, it also shows a winningly authentic reflection of the mutual trust and admiration between Jim and the Caped Crusader (Adam West), which is key to their dynamic.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Bob Hastings (Batman: The Animated Series)
One show that captures the relationship between Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne’s alter ego perfectly is Batman: The Animated Series, in which Bob Hastings and Kevin Conroy voiced the respective roles, in addition to doing so in a few feature-length spin-offs. Amid the Emmy-winning cartoon’s earnest storylines, Hastings - who previously voiced Superboy in some 1960s animated DC TV shows - brought a certain optimistic charm to the character that remains refreshingly unique in any medium.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Trilogy)
As far as I am concerned, no live-action Batman movies so far have ever nailed the Jim Gordon/Batman dynamic nearly as well as the Dark Knight Trilogy, which traces the incorruptible cop’s rise from Gotham City police detective to Commissioner as Bruce Wayne begins his own war on crime. The chemistry between future Academy Award winners Gary Oldman (as Gordon) and Christian Bale (as Batman) as they discreetly join forces amid criticisms of the vigilante’s methods is key to the lasting impact of director Christopher Nolan’s grounded take on the comic.
(Image credit: Disney / Fox)
Ben McKenzie (Gotham)
A flashback in 2005’s Batman Begins reveals how Jim Gordon came to know young Bruce Wayne years before unwittingly forming an alliance with his alter ego, which is also, essentially, the basis of Fox’s hit prequel series. Former The O.C. star Ben McKenzie does an excellent job leading the Gotham cast as a younger Gordon hoping to make a difference in the titular, crime-ridden metropolis after joining the police force around the same time as Thomas and Martha Wayne’s untimely murder.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Bryan Cranston (Batman: Year One)
Ben McKenzie is actually one of the few Jim Gordon actors who have also had the honor of playing another Gotham city character: Batman, whom he voiced in 2011’s brilliant animated DC movie, Batman: Year One - based on Frank Miller’s 1986 reinterpretation of the Dark Knight’s origin. However, the true star of this gritty noir is Emmy winner Bryan Cranston, who voices a version of Gordon that is traditionally good-natured and courageous, but willing to bend the rules to show his new, crooked GCPD colleagues that he is not one to be messed with.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Ray Wise (Batman: The Killing Joke)
Batman: Year One is also keen to show that Jim Gordon is still prone to vulnerability, but he has rarely been so vulnerable as in Alan Moore’s groundbreaking one-shot Batman: The Killing Joke. In 2016’s animated adaptation, Twin Peaks cast member Ray Wise voices the Commissioner, whom Joker (Mark Hamill) nearly drives to his breaking point with a torturous psychological experiment that involves shooting and paralyzing his daughter, Barbara (Tara Strong). Luckily, he is, at least, still strong enough by the end to urge Batman (Kevin Conroy) to defeat the Clown Prince of Crime “by the book.”
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Christopher Meloni (Harley Quinn)
Very little about Christopher Meloni’s performance as Jim Gordon on HBO Max’s animated Harley Quinn series is “by the book,” but it is certainly a welcome and irresistibly hilarious departure at that. This commissioner is far past his breaking point and resorts to using the Batsignal just to vent his marital woes to Batman (Diedrich Bader), who must be the one to reiterate the importance of the rules to his ally this time around. In any other instance, I’d be offended by the idea of a Gordon who has grown numb to Gotham’s endless crimewave, but it is handled with such clever wit and empathy that I have nothing but praise for it.
(Image credit: Warner Bros. )
J.K. Simmons (Zack Snyder’s Justice League)
Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons has the honor of starring in both Marvel movies (as a pitch-perfect J. Jonah Jameson) and (technically two) DC movies as Jim Gordon, who really does seem like old friends with Ben Affleck’s Batman in the sole scene they share. For a while, fans assumed that his appearance in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (the preferred version) would be the last we saw of him as the commissioner, until the exciting announcement that he will reprise the role in the upcoming Batgirl movie for HBO Max.
I would like to also give an honorable mention to Pat Hingle for his solid performance in Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies as the version of Jim Gordon that I, and surely many others, first became associated with growing up. Yet, in retrospect, the character is not painted in the most flattering or accurate light in those films, which also portray him and Michael Keaton’s Batman as no more than workplace acquaintances, which is why I chose to leave him off this list. Of course, at the end of the day, each and every iteration of Gotham’s commissioner is still worth honoring as one of the many stages in his enduring legacy.
Will Marvel Or DC Have the Better Year in 2022?
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Will Marvel or DC have a better year in 2022? It’s a big question – one that the ComicBook Nation Podcast has decided to dig into. 2022 is going to be a landmark year for comic book movies and TV shows as a whole, as not only are we getting a whole lot of new content, but also a small deluge of holdovers from 2021. It’s arguable that fans are collectively winning with having all this superhero goodness on the big and small screen coming their way – but then again, everyone has their favorite camps, so if you have to make a choice, who do you got? Marvel or DC?
Movies
ComicBook Nation Podcast host Kofi Outlaw kicked off the discussion by saying that it looked like Marvel had the early lead with movies – what this the big event film that is Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness; as well as two big hero mantles being passed to ladies, in both Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. On first glance, it’s easy to think that Marvel is stacked for an easy win.
HOWEVER, ComicBook Nation co-host Matthew Aguilar and Phase Zero co-host Jenna Anderson both made good points about why Marvel may not have the movie lane locked up in 2022. DC is coming with The Batman early in the year (March), and Matt Reeves’ reboot already has massive mainstream buzz, with stars Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz having won the approval of the Batman fandom. The Batman could be a monster, giving any one of Marvel’s films a competitive run at the box office.
After Batman kicks things off, DC is actually looking pretty stacked throughout the rest of the year. League of Super-Pets could be the biggest franchise animated spinoff since LEGO Batman (if not bigger). DC and Warner Bros. will get to double-dip on Dwayne Johnson’s star power, using his voice for Super-Pets, while The Rock steps center stage for his Black Adam movie (a spinoff of Shazam!) in July.
Then there’s the small matter of The Flash in November – a film that could rival Doctor Strange 2 in terms of resetting the entire franchise canon through multiverse machinations. With two Batmans (Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck) and some new heroes (Supergirl) stepping in, The Flash could be a monumental game-changer for the DCEU. Jason Momoa’s next Aquaman movie (a billion-dollar franchise) will end out the year. If that’s not enough, DC/WB will blur the line with the Batgirl movie, which will come out on HBO Max, before introducing Batgirl star Leslie Grace to bigger DC movie projects.
In short: DC could actually kill it on the movie front in 2022!
TV Series
The big conversation around DC and Marvel TV in 2022 led the ComicBook Nation crew to one main conclusion: it’s all about end goals and objectives.
Marvel’s next wave of Disney+ series (Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, She-Hulk) are all bringing some highly anticipated Marvel characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with stars both new and established bringing those series to life. Marvel Studios ruled the TV Zeitgeist with the MCU Disney+ shows in 2021 – hard to believe it won’t happen again. All we need now are firm dates of release for these shows!
For DC/WB, there’s massive potential in creating new synchronicity through TV. The CW Arrowverse is what it is by now, and the HBO Max DC series (Titans, Doom Patrol) have their own corner, but like Marvel, DC is going to be tightly integrating their movie and TV universes, and that may be the biggest success for the franchise.
As of writing this, James Gunn’s Peacemaker series seems to be a hit in its premiere week; the series will mark the first successful extension of the DCEU movie universe to television. The Batgirl movie will (as stated blur the line between TV and movies, opening a new lane (character solo features offered through streaming services) that even Marvel has yet to explore. Other series like The Batman’s Gotham P.D. tie-in show or the Green Lantern anthology series can potentially continue to both extend the DC movie universe on TV and add more diverse yet acclaimed prestige content to the DC brand (see: HBO’s Watchmen).
GAMING
This came down to just two games we feel sure about arriving in 2022: Marvel’s Midnight Sons, and DC’s next Batman game, Gotham Knights. The verdict was unanimous: the team all want Gotham Knights as their top pick. DC wins this one.
Comics
(Photo: Marvel Comics)
Total draw. Both DC and Marvel have both big traditional crossover events that look promising; Marvel has more solo books we are excited for (Immortal X-Men), but DC’s Black Label and general variety of comic content are just as promising, with some big crossovers (Trial of the Amazons!) also on the way.
There are several additional ways you can subscribe and/or listen to ComicBook Nation, which are listed below:
Each episode has a deep dive into the current biggest discussion topics and debates within geek culture – with movies, tv, comics, and video games all regular features, and hot genres like sci-fi, anime, and wrestling featured regularly. No matter what your level of geekdom, we have something for you to dig into.
New episodes are launched every Wednesday, so be sure to subscribe now so you don’t miss out!
After every show we’ll keep the discussion on Twitter with the #ComicBookNation hashtag, and you can also keep up with ComicBook.com and show hosts Kofi Outlaw, Janell Wheeler, and Matt Aguilar via the Twitter handles, listed below:
Have thoughts to share? Want us to cover something on the show? Let us know in the comments!
Michael Keaton Explains Why He Initially Walked Away From Batman: “Can’t Live With Myself”
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Michael Keaton is opening up about why he walked away from the Batman franchise in the 1990s, explaining why what started as a job evolved into something that made him miserable.
In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Podcast With Julia Cunningham, the Oscar-nominated actor addressed why he stopped playing the Caped Crusader before decades later coming back to the role for two upcoming films, The Flash and Batgirl.
Keaton first played Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman and then in the 1992 sequel, Batman Returns. Both were huge commercial successes. Then Keaton tapped out, and thus began the Batman Hollywood musical chairs.
“It was a job,” Keaton said of the 1989 film. “And then the next one was a job, and I enjoyed it. But then over time — and then the third one, I just couldn’t do. I just thought, ‘Well, this is not good. This is not good. I just can’t do it. I’ll blow my brains out. Just can’t live with myself.’ And so I walked away.”
Keaton did not go into further detail about his decision but insinuated that, at the time, he was sick of the role and not interested in the extracurriculars that are a part of playing such an iconic character.
“At some point, you’re a jerk if you don’t go [to conventions]. This is a legitimate world. You’re no better or worse than this, but I’m naïve,” he said.
But when the Batman opportunity came around again, Keaton said his curiosity got the better of him, as the world of playing such characters now is vastly different from when he first stepped into the batsuit.
“I thought, ‘Boy, what would that be like?’ And then, coincidentally, there were murmurs, and I got a call from Warner Bros. They wanted to talk to me about something and there were hints of Batman.” Studio execs asked him to just read The Flash script.
“It has to be good,” Keaton admitted. “There’s no reason to do it if it’s not good. It’s not gonna really change anything. And I just jumped in and had fun. And why would you not? You know, I mean, director Andy Muschietti is fantastic, and it’s really creative. I don’t know. It’s fun.”
The Flash is due in theaters Nov. 4. Batgirl will arrive on HBO Max at some point this year.