MICHAEL KEATON SAYS ‘A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE MAKING A LOT OF MONEY WITH SUPERHERO MOVIES' BECAUSE OF TIM BURTON'S ‘CHOICE AND VISION' FOR ‘BATMAN'

Micheal Keaton helped present his longtime collaborator Tim Burton with a star on the Walk of Fame and noted that Hollywood has been making boatloads of money from superhero movies in recent years all because of what Burton started with 1989's "Batman," which starred Keaton in the title role. The duo returned for the sequel "Batman Returns" in 1992.

"He hands me a script and goes, ‘Tell me what you think,'" Keaton said about his "Batman" experience. "This is after Beetlejuice. After that performance. After that type of movie. He says to the studio, ‘I want that guy.' I'll never understand this why anyone cared. The uproar…you would've thought we were being invaded. It was unbelievable. The press was going crazy. But he stood by me. The guts it took to stand by that decision will always be appreciated by me."

"What that [movie] spawned…there are a lot of people making a lot of money out there with their superhero movies because of his choice and his vision of what those movies could be, because he changed everything," Keaton added.

The Oscar nominee spoke to GQ earlier this year about the backlash that erupted when his Batman casting was first announced in the late 1980s. Comic book fans sent around 50,000 lets to Warner Bros. complaining about the selection.

"The fact that Tim said ‘That guy, I want that guy' … The fact that people cared one way or another so much is still baffling. But that was a ballsy move on his part," Keaton said at the time.

In a more recent GQ interview, Keaton said Burton "deserves enormous credit" for changing Hollywood blockbusters with "Batman." He added: "I can't necessarily say this, but there's a strong possibility there is no Marvel Universe, there is no DC Universe, without Tim Burton. He was doubted and questioned."

Keaton and Burton are back together for the upcoming sequel "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," in theaters Sept. 6 from Warner Bros. Their filmography together also includes Disney's live-action "Dumbo" from 2019, although the less said about it the better for Keaton.

 "I think I let him down on one movie, but that's just me, and it bugs me to this day. I was clueless on ‘Dumbo.' I sucked in ‘Dumbo,'" Keaton recently told The New York Times.

Watch Keaton's full speech at Burton's Walk of Fame ceremony in the video below.