Editorial Staff
Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah spent the majority of the past couple of years shooting Batgirl, the DC superhero flick with Leslie Grace in the lead role, Brendan Fraser as the villainous Firefly, J.K Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, and Michael Keaton reprising his Batman role from the ’80s. But when David Zaslav took over WB – relaunching it as ‘WB Discovery’ – he quickly buried the film, opting to not release the film at all.
The duo, who also directed the upcoming Bad Boys 4, said it all came flooding back to them when they watched WB’s The Flash, also featuring Keaton’s Batman, earlier this year. They felt their film would’ve been a great companion piece to that movie.
“We watched it and we were sad,” Adil said of The Flash in an interview with The Insider. “We love director Andy Muschietti and his sister Barbara, who produced the movie. But when we watched it, we felt we could have been part of the whole thing.
We didn’t get the chance to show ‘Batgirl’ to the world and let the audience judge for themselves. Because the audience really is our ultimate boss and should be the deciders of if something is good or bad, or if something should be seen or not.”
The film was “very different than the Flash” said Adil, who explained it was a “more grounded” movie, like “Tim Burton’s Gotham City”. The Flash, as the duo point out, is more of a fantasy piece.
The filmmakers say they were very disappointment audiences didn’t get to see what Keaton did with his Batman in their film.
“I felt like a kid on set working with Keaton,” Bilall said. “I totally forgot that I was directing.”
Adil added, “It’s the biggest disappointment of our careers. As a fanboy, just to be in the presence of Keaton as Batman, that’s just a privilege and an honor. But it’s a bittersweet feeling.”
