Posts Tagged ‘Adam West’

TORONTO STAR: agent lands Batman as a client, drove custom-built Batmobile!

Richard meets Andrew Goodwin, Adam West’s former manager, Batman super-fan and owner of a very cool Batmobile replica!

“It’s not like you can go to your local Canadian Tire to buy a part for a 1966 Batmobile,” said Goodwin. “Everything had to be fabricated. Mine is built on a 1978 Lincoln Continental and all that’s left is the chassis and drive train. The support for the body and everything all had to be custom made…” Read the whole thing HERE!

 

Metro In Focus: From Adam West to Ben Affleck, the suit makes the (Bat)man.

By Richard Crouse – Metro In Focus

Let’s face it, without the batsuit Bruce Wayne is just another billionaire playboy with some cool toys. With it, he’s the Caped Crusader, keeping Gotham and the world safe. The clothes make the man, or in this case, the superhero.

To play the Dark Knight in the new Justice League movie, Ben Affleck wore a variation on his Batman v Superman costume which was a variation on every batsuit that came before it.

Designed to conceal his identity and frighten criminals, the basic batsuit is usually blue-black or dark grey, emblazoned with the chest-mounted Batsymbol. Add to that a flowing cape, finned gloves and a utility belt with a variety of crime fighting gadgets. All batsuits are topped off with a cowl with ears that mimic a bat’s head.

Costume designer Michael Wilkinson says Affleck’s new look is, “a little more aggressive.” To pump up the suit’s armour, Wilkinson drew on Bruce Wayne’s history of studying martial arts in Japan, creating new gloves based on samurai designs. Inspired by the Wayne Tech esthetic, he also revamped the cowl, adding in new ways for Batman to communicate with his trusty manservant Alfred.

Like Rick Blaine’s fedora or Annie Hall’s wide trousers, long white shirts, vests and men’s ties, the suit is crucial to Batman’s brand but it’s not always a comfortable fit.

“The first time I ever put on the (suit) myself I thought, ‘Oh, Chris (Nolan) has to re-do the cast,’” says Christian Bale, who played the Caped Crusader in three movies, “because the claustrophobia was just unbelievable.”

The Batman Begins actor says he discovered a meditative process that eased the anxiety of feeling trapped inside the hulking suit and estimates that he spent a total of 21 months encased in Batman’s armour.

He claims the discomfort actually helped him play the brooding character because he was always in a foul mood when he had to don the suit.

“Batman, he’s this very, very dark, messed-up character,” said Bale. “I found when I put on the suit I went, ‘I just feel like a bloody idiot if I don’t use this as a means to (show) his true, monstrous self that he allows to come out in that moment.’”

When Affleck took over the role from Bale he says the Welsh actor gave him one important bit of advice. “He told me to make sure I got a zipper in the suit,” Affleck laughs, “which was valuable, practical advice as it turned out.”

Perhaps the most beloved actor to wear the batsuit was the late Adam West. For 120 episodes from 1966 to 1968, West was Batman on the most popular show on television. He called putting on the suit one of his most memorable moments on the show.

“One defining moment was when I first put on the costume for real and was about to leave my trailer on the stage and walk out in front of the crew and the press, and into the light,” he told me in a 2010 interview.

“I thought, ‘Oh Lord! Are they going to laugh? What’s going to happen here?’ Well, I walked across the stage as dignified as I could and there wasn’t a sound. People stood there in awe and I thought, ‘Yes, this will work.’”

HOUSE OF CROUSE EXTRA: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE LATE ADAM WEST

Welcome to the House of Crouse. Batmans come and go. For a time Michael Keaton wore the caped suit. Then in rapid succession Val Kilmer and George Clooney donned the cowl. In recent years Christian Bale and Ben Affleck have been fitted for the Bat-Suit, but of all the actors to have played the Dark Knight, one stands head and shoulders above the rest in our imaginations. For two-and-a-half heady years—and 120 episodes—from 1966 to 1968 Adam West was Batman on the most popular show on television. West passed away Friday night in Los Angeles after a short battle with leukemia. He was 88 years old. This conversation dates from 2010 and finds West in a chatty and gracious mood. Sit back and raise a glass to the man who called himself The Bright Knight.

RETURN TO THE BATCAVE: THE MISADVENTURES OF ADAM AND BURT DVD: 3 STARS

return-to-the-batcave-1Holy reunion, Batman!

Where the anime style Gotham Knight is Batman for a new generation, Return to the Batcave is for old school batfans. This 2003 TV movie stars Adam West and Burt Ward—that’s the original TV Batman and Robin for those born after 1970—as actors who are called in to relive their legendary pasts as the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder as they try and get to the bottom of the missing Batmobile mystery.

Interspersed with the campy Batmobile story are flashbacks to the heyday of the Batman series when West and Ward were two of television’s most popular stars. Portrayed by Jack Brewster and Jason Marsden the flashbacks hit all the high points of the Dynamic Duo’s history with the show; how Ward’s tights were singled out by the Catholic Legion of Decency as being too revealing for TV; how the pressure of the show caused a rift not only between the actors but also broke up Ward’s marriage; how Cesar Romero refused to shave off his moustache to play the Joker and Burgess Meredith was the second choice as the Penguin after Mickey Rooney who turned the part down.

Back to the Batcave is to The Dark Knight what Dumb and Dumber is to Citizen Kane. It’s everything the Christopher Nolan movies aren’t. It’s silly and just as campy as the 1960s series it pays tribute to. From the Batusi dance to the crazy camera angles, the awful puns and guest appearances from original villains Lee Merriwether, Julie Newmar and Riddler Frank Gorshin in supporting roles it captures the anarchic spirit of the original show and has a nice nostalgic ring.

West and Ward both hand in fun, kitschy performances, nicely echoing their campy work on the television show and while fans of the new darker Batman movies and cartoons may not understand the kitsch appeal of Return to the Batcave, the silly fun of the movie makes it essential viewing for all baby boomer Batfans.

Adam West Reminiceses about his Days as the “Bright” Knight zoomermag.com Thursday, August 26, 2010 By Richard Crouse

enhanced-buzz-15707-1378490499-29Batmans come and go. For a time Michael Keaton wore the caped suit. Then in rapid succession Val Kilmer and George Clooney donned the cowl. In recent years Christian Bale has been fitted for the Bat-Suit, but of all the actors to have played the Dark Knight, one stands head and shoulders above the rest in our imaginations. For two-and-a-half heady years—and 120 episodes—from 1966 to 1968 Adam West was Batman on the most popular show on television.

“We never stopped,” he says. “I know a lot of TV series people complain about hours and pressure but we really had them. We worked fifteen, sixteen hours a day! We were on twice a week so you really had to run.”

The worst part for West wasn’t the hours or the pressure, it was the blue, purple and gray Batsuit. “It was a time when they didn’t have the materials they have today and it was just plain hot and itchy.”

Driving the Batmobile, the show’s sleek signature car—it’s stylish lines are said to have been inspired by the mako shark and the manta ray—however, was one of the job’s great pleasures, but not without its challenges. “Getting behind the wheel of the Batmobile was like driving a broken down old 37 Ford wheat truck. I gotta be honest. But you know what? I didn’t mind because it was so tricky and fun and funny and perfect on film and the kids loved it. It’s the most famous car in the world and everybody today that I meet still prefers that car to any other.”

The “any other” he refers to are the movie Batmobiles used in the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan Batman films. His intonation begs the question, how does he feel about the recent movies?

“I don’t feel,” he says. “I really have no feeling because they are good for what they are. I can’t be a critic. They do their thing. They have The Dark Knight. We did our thing and I’m The Bright Knight.”

For all the memorable elements of the show—the crazy pop art KAPOWs! And BOFFs! that punctuated the fight scenes or the cliffhanger endings, “Tune in tomorrow—same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!”—West says, for him, two moments stands out above the rest—one professional, one personal.

“The defining moment of the character might be when he [Batman] sat at the disco bar and they slipped him a drug, or a Mickey in his orange juice. So with great abandonment he stood up and created The Batusi (The go-go dance later done by John Travolta in Pulp Fiction). That moment to me kind of summed up everything that it was. That it could be really funny, absurd, fun and yet serious,” he says, “and the kids would really take it seriously.”

“The other defining moment was when I first put on the costume for real and was about to leave my trailer on the stage and walk out in front of the crew and the press, and into the light. I thought, ‘Oh Lord! Are they going to laugh? What’s going to happen here?’ Well, I walked across the stage as dignified as I could and there wasn’t a sound. People stood there in awe and I thought, ‘Yes, this will work.’”

And more than forty years later it is still working. West hung up the itchy Batsuit years ago, but for a generation of fans he’ll always be the Bright Knight.

Fans in Toronto can get a chance to meet and mingle with Adam West this weekend when he makes special appearances at The Toronto Underground Theatre and Fan Expo.