The Hughes Brothers on Everything Including Batman

In the run up to the release of the Denzel Washington starrer, The Book of Eli, the film’s directors, brothers Albert and Allen Hughes, did the usual round of interviews. Here are some highlights from two of them:

From Hollywood Reporter:

YOU BASICALLY MOVED OUT OF THE COUNTRY, CORRECT?


ALBERT HUGHES: I moved to Prague eight years ago. I have a kid in Los Angeles, so I come out and stay there when I'm here to work. But if I had my choice, I would not set foot in this town or this country again. It's 50% the business I'm in and 50% the culture and politics of the country. The youthfulness of this country, not having to deal with thousands of years of sexuality, religion, everything. This country is a big baby, and I don't want to be here while it's still learning. I'd rather be in a country where I don't understand the language and nobody is bothering me or telling me what to read or who to f--- and what movies to make. Out there, I do these little shorts that no one ever sees. They're experimental. I get more joy outta doing that than doing a movie. I can just make some bull---t and have fun. I've been doing that for eight years.

From MTV via Comic Book Movie:

"Three different Batman projects were presented to us over the years," revealed Albert Hughes. "The first time, it was 'The Dark Knight Returns.' I remember how dark the comic book was. Batman was old. He had to rely more on his tools and other shit, and he was a decrepit, 60 or 70 year-old man in this comic book."

According to the brothers, this Batman project never came to be because the studio thought that this film would kill the franchise.  I don't believe that a movie about Batman at the end of his career would kill the franchise, and I think the today's movie audiences are sophisticated enough to understand a Batman reboot that would inevitably have to appear after a film version of The Dark Knight Returns.  Certainly, the recent Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and the Jude Law, proved that any character franchise can be refreshed and revived, because if any literary character had been done to death, it was Sherlock Holmes.