PEOPLE
Val Kilmer fans, rejoice: Iceman wants to play Batman — again.
In a recent interview with IGN's Jim Vejvoda, the actor confirmed that he would definitely reprise his role as the Caped Crusader after returning to the screen as Adm. Tom "Iceman" Kazansky in the 2022 blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick."
Vejvoda used email to communicate with Kilmer, whose voice was significantly weakened by a tracheostomy he underwent after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. In "Top Gun: Maverick," Kilmer's character also has throat cancer and speaks with the help of AI.
Kilmer starred as Batman opposite Chris O'Donnell's Robin in the 1995 film "Batman Forever" — before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997's "Batman & Robin" and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989's "Batman" and 1992's "Batman Returns."
When asked by IGN if he would consider portraying Bruce Wayne once more — given that "we now have multiple universes in comic book movies where actors who've played Batman or Spider-Man in the past team up with the current actor playing the role" — Kilmer replied, "Yea please," according to a Twitter thread posted Tuesday by Vejvoda.
The 62-year-old performer added that he would also be interested in a sequel to the 1995 crime drama "Heat," because he loves, trusts and gets along "great" with director Michael Mann.
It's worth noting that Kilmer's conversation with IGN comes shortly after Warner Bros. Discovery made the controversial decision to shelve "Batgirl," which would have marked Keaton's return as Batman alongside Leslie Grace's Batgirl. The DC film cost $90 million to make and was set to debut on HBO Max before the studio scrapped the project.
This week, the directors of "Batgirl" lamented their inability to access any of the footage they shot — including "all the scenes" with Keaton's Batman.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros.' rival studio, Sony Pictures, successfully pulled off the epic returns of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Mans for "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which revitalized the pandemic box office in December.
———
The third season of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” greenlit last month, is shaping up to be a promising one now that Paul Rudd has joined the already acclaimed cast as a series regular, Variety reports.
The news comes on the heels of the 53-year-old “Ant-Man” star’s cameo as Broadway star Ben Glenroy in Tuesday’s sophomore season finale.
“Paul Rudd, after making an auspicious entrance into the world of our show ... is someone we clearly want to know more about and see in our upcoming Season 3 — as he is a clear source of many upcoming questions and, as ever with our show, many twists yet to come!” said series co-creator John Hoffman in a statement to the outlet.
The mystery comedy series, which premiered last August, centers on a trio of New York neighbors — played by Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez — who channel their obsession with true crime podcasts into solving a murder in their building, until the second season implicates them in a subsequent murder in the building.
Among the show’s 17 Emmy nominations are outstanding comedy series, as well as outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for frequent collaborators Martin, 77, and Short, 72, who are currently on a comedy tour together.
———
LOS ANGELES — Capitol Records has dropped AI rapper FN Meka, less than two weeks after it signed the computer-generated rap artist to its roster.
FN Meka, which has over 10 million followers on TikTok, had come under heavy fire for appropriating Black culture and mocking police brutality, with some critics calling it "digital blackface."
"CMG has severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately," a representative for Capitol Music Group said in a statement. "We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it. We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive feedback in the past couple of days — your input was invaluable as we came to the decision to end our association with the project."
Capitol Records is home to such artists as Coldplay, Sam Smith, Katy Perry and Halsey. It is owned by the industry-leading Universal Music Group.
Meka was co-created by Anthony Martini and Brandon Le, who together founded the "virtual record label" Factory New. The company uses artificial intelligence to study popular music and create songs, while also using augmented reality to create content for Meka's TikTok.
"We've developed a proprietary AI technology that analyzes certain popular songs of a specified genre and generates recommendations for the various elements of song construction: lyrical content, chords, melody, tempo, sounds, etc.," Martini told Music Business Worldwide in 2021. "We then combine these elements to create the song."
After Capitol announced the signing of FN Meka on Aug. 12, some music fans accused the robot's creators of stealing from Black culture while also making a mockery of the systems that oppress Black people. One Twitter user resurfaced a photo the character had posted on Instagram in 2019, which showed him being assaulted by a virtual police officer in jail because he refused to "snitch."
From combined wire services
