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This is one on one.

I'm an equal American just like you are.

The way we change presidents in this country is by voting.

A quartet is already a joy.

It's just the new job.

January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

I don't care how good you ar or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

I mean, what other countries sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better?

People call me because they feel nobody's paying attention.

It's not all about memorizing and getting information.

It's what you do with that information.

Stars start talking right now.

That's a good question.

High five.

Everyone.

Steve Adubato this is part of a dual series, if you will, part of our series called The Arts Connectio all about the arts in the state and the region of the nation, and also media matters because media matters.

This particular program all about film as a very important form of media.

We're honored to be joined by our good friend Michael.

Michael is original.

Excuse me, the original originator and executive producer of the Batman movie franchise.

And also in his spare time, the chairman of the new Jersey Motion Picture and Film Commission and joins us from Indiana.

Michael, great to see you.

Thanks, Dave.

It's great to be here with you again, pal.

Yeah, make the Indiana connection for us because it also involves your work as a faculty member at the university out there.

Yeah, I graduated Indiana.

I got three degrees here.

And every year as kind of payback, I come back for three week and teach two intensive courses in the media school on the business of producing motion pictures.

Excellent.

Michael, talk to us first.

And we've had many conversations in the past and about the Batman series for you, your passion for the Batman comic strip, and then ultimately what winds up happening with the movie franchise.

Where does it come from and when?

I think it start when I was a kid growing up down near Asbury Park in Ocean Township, model County.

I was on a Little League team.

I had just turned eight.

I got screamed at by my coach for striking out that I looked like a clown out there, and I went home, and I sought refuge with m superheroes and my comic books and that trauma, that little tiny trauma at at age 7 or 8, led to me to follow the adventures of superheroes and be inspired by them.

And for me Batman was the one who was human I could identify with most.

He had an intense origin story, the most colorful supervillains in the coolest car on Earth, and I was hooked.

I just sell it.

Michael, how did you sell the.

How did you sell it to those who put the money in to start the movie franchise?

I said I was here at a vengeance because my my dear character, Batman on TV was turned into a joke.

The whole world was laughing at Batman.

And I had already met when I was 13 years old, his creators, who told me how and why he was create as a dark knight, battling these very disturbed villains in the shadows.

And I wanted to restore th darkness and dignity to my hero.

So I. I was a kid, my 20s.

I went to the president of DC comics and said, I want to buy the rights to Batman and make dark and serious Batman movies.

And he looked at me like the poster for Home Alone, like, oh my God, you know, kid, you're going to lose all your money.

Don't you understand tha since Batman went off the air, the brand is as dead as a dodo?

I don't want to see you lose all your money.

He couldn't convince me.

And I'm a kid in my 20.

Steve and I bought the rights to Batman because nobody else on the planet Earth showed up and then set out on my vow, on my mission to restore tha darkness and dignity to Batman.

Where does Bruce Wayne fit into this?

Bruce Wayne is now the secret identity.

Really?

Just like Superman is actually Superman, and he pretends to be Clark Kent.

Batman, at this stage of the game, pretends to be Bruce Wayne because when he was a kid and saw his parents slaughtered before his eyes, he sacrificed his childhoo at that moment in time and vowed he would get the guys who did this get all the bad guys, even if he had to walk throug hell for the rest of his life.

You know you get asked this all the time.

I don't think of all the interviews we've done.

By the way, check out our website.

Steve out about our dog for previous interviews with Michael.

I don't think I've asked you this, but I've wanted to.

There have been how many different actor playing Batman in the franchise?

Oh my God.

If you include the voice actors for animation, we are absolutely in double figures.

Who do you think was the best?

The best what?

That's the question.

The best.

Don't be difficult.

All right.

If it.

If it's the best.

Batman, I say most of the Batman have been within 25% of each other, but each of the Bruce Wayne's has been completely different.

And it's all about Bruce Wayne.

It's really not so much about Batman.

So you had Michael Keaton as the driven, obsesse to the point of being psychotic.

I, who puts on the suit, goes out and be Batman.

You had Christian Bale, the realistic young man who's got probably post traumatic distress stress syndrome and who goes down and puts on the armor.

Robert Pattinson is a very young Bruce Wayne, drenched in the story of his parents, who's trying to figure out if his mission is revenge or if it's justice.

So in some and Ben Affleck playing Bruce Wayne at 45, he doesn't want to do it anymore.

He's frustrated and pulled back into it.

So it's really the Bruce Wayne's that have been so dramatically different.

He asked me to pick which one.

I would say, why don't you just ask me to know which is your favorite kid?

You know, it's impossible.

Michael, before we move to the film Commission, I'm curious about this.

To what degree did you have a hand?

In impacting, influencing the making of the Batman films?

Oh, well, I had this vision, and the vision was instilled in me by his creators.

So that vision became the creative blueprint going forward.

Steve, from the time I bought the rights to Batman until we finally got the first movie made, took ten years.

Every single studio rejected it.

Every single studio told me I was crazy.

It was like the worst idea they ever heard.

It's a long time.

P.S.

since this is also part of ou series media matters, which is frankly an effort to promot not just why media matters, why quality important media, including film matters, but also with a new entity, center for Media Leadership.

The website will come up.

The information will come up.

We're trying to promote the next generation of media leaders.

Obviously, on my end, it's the broadcast news, information and public policy programing for you.

How important is it as part of the media matters thinking to help promote, develop and encourage, particularly in light of what you just sai got rejected by so many studios?

The next generatio of filmmakers, it's essential.

It's absolutely essential.

You know, Steve, the industry is changing by the day.

It's in a state of revolution.

The movie TV streaming industry.

The decentralization of Hollywood is a sea change, the convergence and the way that one company is swallowing up another company as they consolidate is a sea change.

And there is a, I think, a desperate need in a media that caters to younger people generally, that we get in a stream of new voices, new perspectives, and we that's why it's so essential.

We bring in our millennials, we bring in our Gen Zs.

This is the future and it is so important.

Michael, does it bother yo if people try to watch or not?

Don't try, but actually try to stay.

Would they watch film on the phone to bother you?

Well, I go watch the Odyssey on your phone or on your wristwatch and tell me you've had a wonderful experience.

I'll tell you something, Steven.

I'll use the Odyssey.

An example.

My wife and I went to an 11 a.m.

Thursday Imax screening of the Odyssey for the first time since before Covid.

We were in a theater that was absolutely packed in three hours.

Not one person put on their cell phone.

Not one person talked.

At the end, everyone's clapping.

And I see a younger generation going, oh my God, is this what a communal experience inside a movie theater supposed to be wher everybody shares the experience?

We took my two granddaughters, who were ten and 11, to a screening of an old movie called it's a mad, mad, Mad World in a movie theate with 600 people on a big screen, and they saw 600 people laughing at the same things.

They could not believe the magic of what they were experiencing.

And that is really, really important.

By the way, that movie, The Mad Man, not Gene Wilder.

Know who who is who is every comedian i Hollywood was in that meeting.

It was in that movie.

It's dangerous to try to show what I know about film with Michael.

Michael.

The film industry in new Jersey, as we put up the website for the new Jersey Motion Picture and Televisio Commission, you are the chairman of that commission.

What is the commission and why is it so important now more than ever?

I've been on the commission now for 40 years.

I've been the chairman the last ten years.

I mentioned before the decentralization of Hollywood that's taken.

What do you mean by that, by the way?

All right.

When I started in this industry 50 years ago, the decision as to where you shot a movie was a creative decision made by the director and producer.

Today, it's a decision mad by accountants and tax people.

You go where the tax incentive plan is a good one.

So you've got the tax incentives that Governor Murphy was able to get passed on a bipartisan basis in new Jersey.

Number two, you look for locations.

New Jersey is New York City's grandest backlot, the best backlot in the world within one hour will give you mountains, farmland, beaches, Atlantic City, urban centers, suburbia.

You can't beat it.

70% of the union and teamster crews that function in New York and Philadelphia actually live in new Jersey You don't have to travel them.

We've got more and more towns with ferry service directly to New York.

Get on.

Have to deal with the tunnels and the bridges.

The equipment companies have moved in, the lumber companies have moved in, and we are all inclusive.

Even the Meadowlands Arena.

Instead of sitting there doing nothing, has been converted into TV studios with over 1000 jobs created in the process.

We are all about economic development.

We are all about jobs and job training, and that has been an absolutely terrific asset to the people of new Jersey.

What is the Film Ready program?

What's that?

What is that about?

We have a unique program called Film Ready.

That is the envy of all the other states.

And it is attracting producers, production companies, movie studios to new Jersey.

Because when the circus comes to town, a lot of times towns are not prepared.

They don't understand the needs of a production.

Production doesn't understand what the town needs.

So we go town by town and spend a day with the hierarchy of the town.

Maybe the board of Education, the mayor, the town council, the police, the fire.

And we let them know what this experience is.

How to work together.

You don't want to overcharg permits for filming in a town.

That's not what they're going to be there for.

They're there to use all your local businesses, all your local services, hir local people, higher local cops and how to work together t make it a positive experience.

And that's invaluable.

Michael, before I let you go.

AI and film.

Good thing, bad thing.

What?

AI is here.

Okay.

We have to acknowledge it's here.

But here's the key.

It can only be used as a proficiency tool to save time and money.

It never should be allowed to take the place of creativity, human thinking and art.

Well said.

Hey, Michael.

Thank you.

As always, continue doing important work not just with the Film Commission, not just with the Batman franchise, but also you work teaching out in Indiana.

Michael thank you so much.

All the best.

Thanks, Steve.

Take care.

You got to stay with us.

Be right back to watch more one on one with Steve Adubato.

Find us onlin and follow us on social media.

We continue talking all about film with our good friend James Burke, who is not only the president and chairman of the Burke Foundation, to fully disclose one of our significant underwriters but also the director of the Ice at the bottom of the world, an important film, a longtime filmmaker.

We'll talk about some credits, by the way.

Check out James Burke.

You'll find out his other film credits.

James, good to see you.

Good to see you, Steve.

First of all, the title itself, the ice at the bottom of the world.

Why the title?

And then talk about the film.

So?

So it's based on a short story that won the Pen Hemingway Award for Mark Richard, the the writer.

And, you know I would have to defer to to Mark Rashad about why he titled the short story and the and the film The Ice at the bottom of the world.

But I think it has to do with the lead character, who is a captain in the Navy, and he's somewhat stuck in ice to be emotionally and and, as he begins the journey of the story of the movie.

So I think it has something to do with the melting of, of the character.

And he loved this character, loved Antarctica, which is where he spent a lot of time.

When he was in, in, in that war time.

So would you like a little synopsis of the of.

Yeah.

Okay.

Come on.

Bring it.

James, let me bring you the the quick way.

So, so so it's it's about a, Navy captain who retires after 35 years of sea, comes home to his wife and two now adult daughters who he basically had not really known.

And they're trying to connect in the beginning of the movie and it's a bit of a, you know, it's it's it's, a comedy of errors.

Them trying to come together.

They all have their needs and their wants, and each one is trying to get those things and they're missing each other.

And there's some laughs in that beginning.

You learn later in the movie.

And sorry to to disclose this but you learn later in the movie that he's actually dying of cancer and that he's really come home just he wants to sort of get out and his life, get things put together and, and not make a fuss for his wife and daughters.

And he ends up and ironically, connecting with his his daughters, he's forced by his wife and his daughters to connect.

So it sort of starts out as a comedy, but it becomes a drama and it's quite touching and it's it's just a it's a beautiful story that Mark Richard wrote the cast.

James.

So, so I decided in this movie, most of the movies I've done, I've don with sort of real name actors.

But in this movie, I decided I was this what is this?

Matthew McConaughey who was.

Yes, about one thing.

Who's that guy?

Matthew McConaughey and Alan Arkin and Amy Irving and John Turow were in 13 conversations about one thing that I did many years ago.

I did a movie with Morgan Freeman and and that's right, Dunst called levity.

I did a movie that I directed called Aurora borealis with Donal Sutherland and Juliette Lewis.

So I make independent movies with sort of name actors.

This movie, the ice at the bottom of the world, I, I less known actors, but you would recognize them because they've worked a ton and they're just great, and they were perfect for the parts and, and and they have the performances are just wonderful.

I was just so blessed to have them.

James, I'm curious about this.

And by the way, check out the interview we did with James talking about his dad.

Inducted into the 2026 new Jersey Hall of Fame.

Check out that interview, par of our series I do with Jackie, our executive produce and co-anchor of Remember Them.

Check out that program.

But coming back to this, I am fascinated why people go into the industry.

They go into film for you.

Your passion comes from where James, you know, it started as an actor when I was a kid.

I was always in the plays at high school and college, and then I didn't know what I wanted to do when I got out of college, and the only thing I loved doing was acting.

So I studied acting.

I had a theater company in Ne York City for a number of years.

Then I moved out to Los Angeles with Stars in My Eyes as an actor.

And it just, I, I got lucky, I, I started directing a couple of small play in in Los Angeles, one of which did quite well and I turned into a short film, and that got me into film school.

So I went to American Film Institute, AFI, for the directing program.

So I shifted to film from the, the theater.

And and I just love storytelling.

You're a storyteller, obviously, Steve, and I think I just that's my passion.

I love to be able to tell stories.

So I've been just so blessed to be able to work both in theater and, and and in film to be able.

It's just it is a passion of mine.

I'm curious, for those of us who love film and see the credits, we see eight people named as executive producers, and I'm like, I guess that's the person who makes it happen.

And I'm thinking, I, I know that a little bit about film, and I know Scorsese may or may not be an executive producer, but he's a directo and James Burke is a director.

Make it clear to folks how folks understand, James, what a director does and why a director is so incredibly important.

And it takes a village, takes a team, I know, but in some ways the most important person.

Please, James.

Yeah.

So.

So the easiest way to think about this is that producers are the folk that sort of make it all happen.

They raise the money.

They, you know, they hire people.

They but but creatively in a film, the director is really the the buck stops here has a director.

So so and it sometime it gets a little bit difficult because everybody looks to yo to answer every single question about how we're going to make the movie.

And, that's a wonderful and can be intoxicating, bu it can also be very challenging.

But you're lucky enough to have all of these people that can do stuff.

And, you know, whether it's prop or lighting or camera work or, and I remember when my father first came on to a set when I was directing many, many years ago.

And there was probably, you know, close to 100 people.

And he's like what are all these people doing?

You know?

But, and every of course, everybody has has a job and an important one.

So it is collaborative.

But you do as a director, you're the creative guy.

You have to make the final decisions.

And you certainly I certainly lean on everybody to help me make that story come alive.

To what degree?

James, as a director and as you know, I'm a student of leadership, which is how I wound up writing about your dad.

And in my book, about crisis communication.

So I'm curious from a leadership perspective, a management and leadership perspective, which is a big part of it for me, is giving feedback.

And it doesn't always go well.

I think you know exactly what I mean.

How how has the giving of feedback as a director for you evolved as you have evolved as a leader, as a director, as a person?

That is a great question.

So I tend to be a real collaborator.

So I, I like to have everybody's voice come through, but eventually you I've had to learn that I have to make the decision ultimately.

So so that has been a challenge for me.

I much rather have everybody get in a room together.

We all figure it all out and, you know, but but eventually you have to sort of have one person especially.

It is a hierarchy.

And it's important that that hierarchy exists so that we're not sort of trying to go all over the plac and make the movie by committee.

So it's it's been a challenge for me and, and, but, but, you know, the more I care about a movie and this one I think I've cared about more than any movie I've made, it's just a beautiful script and a beautiful story, and I, I stepped up and I had to sort of make some tough decisions along the way.

And by the way, the film we're talking about is the ice at the bottom of the world.

Where can people check it out?

James so, so the movie literally was finished two weeks ago.

So we we have just finished the film.

So.

So the next step is on the 2nd of September.

This will be seen later.

Pick up your point James.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Yeah.

So so so yes.

So the movie has just been completed.

We're lucky enough that we were able to raise all of the money and so we could make the movie on our own, and we were thrilled to have been able to do that so that we could make our vision come, come to life.

And now we we're going to go out and, and, you know, get a distributor.

We have an agency tha represents us for distribution.

So I don't kno when that will exactly happen, but sometime in 2027 and the movie will get theatrical release of some kind and then probably go to streaming after that.

The process is a complicated one, is it not?

It is.

It's.

And listen, this movie took two years to make wow.

So so so.

And that's the normal run of the thing because you're working on the script and then you're working on shooting the movie.

Then you're working in editing and sound and all the other things that come.

It takes a long time to put it all together.

So James Burke is not only the director of the film The Ice at the bottom of the world, but also the president an chairman of the Burke Foundation to fully disclose, once again a significant underwriter of our child care, public awareness programing.

And James, I canno thank you enough for joining us on this edition of one on One part of our miniseries, The Arts Connection.

This program dedicated to film as a powerful art form.

Thank you James, we appreciate it.

Thank you, Steve, so much.

We really appreciate it.

We thank you and your team.

By the way, check out the ice at the bottom of the worl when it comes out in the future.

I'm Steve Adubato.

This been one on one and we'll see you next time.

One on One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by the new Jerse Economic Development Authority, the Turtle Fund, a foundation serving children, the Audubon Center for Media Leadership, Newark Board of Education, Stockton University Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, new Jersey Sharing Network, the Northward Center, and by Hackensack Meridian Health.

Promotional support provided by ROI, NJ and by NJ.com.

To watch more.

One on one with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on social media.