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When I was a kid, I wasn’t as well versed in pop culture as I am now.  Thus, I missed out on Beetlejuice and Michael Keaton’s stint as the Batman.  My first experience seeing him in theaters was in his role as washed up actor Riggan Thomson in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Best Picture winning Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).  What a first experience it was.  His acting blew me away, so I’m glad to say that we’ll be seeing him again in cinemas through an adaptation of Brian Joines’ Imagine Agents.

As announced on The Hollywood Reporter, award-winning publisher BOOM! Studios is excited to reveal that Michael Keaton (Birdman, Batman) will star in and produce a film adaptation at 20th Century Fox of the comic series Imagine Agents, created by Brian Joines.

Written by Joines (Krampus) and illustrated by Bachan (Rocket Salvage), Imagine Agents is the story of two agents who work for clandestine organization I.M.A.G.I.N.E. to keep kids’ imaginary friends under control. Little do they know that an abandoned “friend” from long ago is about to disrupt the status quo and turn everything upside down. The series was published from October 2013 to January 2014, with a collected edition released in December 2014.

“Imagine Agents has been the most rewarding project I’ve worked on and the fact it’s going to be a movie with Michael Keaton, whose work had a huge impact on my teenaged years and indirectly played a role in my decision to become a writer, is just a mind-blowing continuation of that reward,” said Joines.

BOOM! has a first-look feature film deal at 20th Century Fox that includes first-dollar gross on films based on any of its comics, which the publisher splits with its creators.

BOOM! Studios Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ross Richie will produce the film with Keaton and Anonymous Content’s Michael Sugar. President of Development Stephen Christy will executive produce with Anonymous Content’s Eli Selden. Senior Vice President of Film Adam Yoelin will co-produce in cooperation with Anonymous Content’s Ashley Zalta.
Keaton, best known for his roles in Beetlejuice and Batman,  is coming off his award-nominated performance as washed-up superhero actor Riggan Thomson in New Regency Pictures’ Birdman and is currently filming The Founder, a biopic about Ray Kroc, the founder of the McDonald’s fast-food chain.

Among this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture were two films with drum scores: Whiplash, in which a highly regarded but abusive conductor molds an aspiring young jazz musician into the genius he was meant to be, and Birdman, in which an aging film actor who was never a genius at all stars in a play and possibly flies. In spite of their innovative soundtracks, neither film received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.

The post Great man drumming: Birdman, Whiplash, and myth of the male artist appeared first on OUPblog.

Photo: NY Times

Michael Keaton finally had his big comeback year in 2014. With Birdman, and his very meta portrayal of a washed-up superhero actor, Keaton now finds himself as a leading contender for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Recently, he sat down with EPIX, along with some of his fellow competition for the award: Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), and Steve Carrell (Foxcatcher). Robert Downey Jr. was also in attendance for the roundtable interview.

At one point during the interview, the topic of Keaton’s wearing the Batsuit came up, from his days in Tim Burton’s Batman films, and Keaton’s addressing the topic is as entertaining as ever:

Please put me down in support of Keaton playing the The Dark Knight Returns version of the character someday, a role he still has some affection for.