 Welcome to Suncoast Spotlight, the regional talk show that tells you what's happening on the Suncoast in entertainment of all kinds, including movies, TV, and more. I'm your host, Jeannie Corcoran, director of the Sarasota County Film and Entertainment Office, and this program is created and produced by Suncoast Technical College, Sarasota County's Channel 19, and our Film Commission. We have a very special guest today on loan to us from Hollywood, Gotham, and New Jersey. Michael Hueslund, also known as the boy who loved Batman, and whose fanboy devotion led him to fulfill a promise and create an inspiring, successful, hilarious, delirious, extraordinary profession that was his dream come true. Michael has a pretty simple philosophy for college students that will make you laugh and make you think. He has yet to fully decide what he wants to be when he grows up, but we're in no hurry to see him do that. Stay with us to learn more about the remarkable Michael Hueslund coming right up. Welcome back. We're here today with Michael Hueslund, a creative producer, as well as an executive producer, and the originator of all the Batman film franchise pictures. Michael, one thing that really impresses me is how much you give of yourself to students. While you've been in Sarasota this visit, you've spoken to Ringling College, you've spoken to Suncoast Technical Institute students. How do you feel about students, and how do they relate to how you got your career off the ground? When I was a student, high school and college, and I had dreams of working in the field of comic books and movies and animation and television, nobody showed up at my school or at my doorstep to offer any kind of counseling or advice, not even a pep talk to say, no, this is doable, you can do this, there's a path. Nobody. So to me, the struggle career-wise of trying to bring a dark and serious Batman to the screen, which actually originally took over 10 years to do because I was turned down by every studio in Hollywood initially, that whole process, that whole human endurance contest for me becomes validated when I have an opportunity to speak to students and to go back and impart to them the journey I've been on because I didn't come from money, I had no relatives in Hollywood, I didn't know anyone in Hollywood, and it's important they know whatever their dream is, whatever their passion is, it is doable. And I think that when they hear my story directly from me, maybe they'll understand that it's not just a bunch of hokum and that maybe this is really true, maybe this really can happen. So I think it's really important. Well, I know that the students have so enjoyed it. I've decided you're not just an author and a creative and executive producer, you're a rock star. And for everyone's information, his new nickname is Mick Usland for rock star status in Sarasota. The other thing about your journey to get here, I know that you were the very first college professor of comic books. Tell us a little bit about that, and then I want to ask you how you promoted that to the media. Well, it's true, not only that, but actually more recently I became the first ever recipient of a doctorate in comic books from Mammoth University in New Jersey, which was really kind of cool for a geeky fanboy kind of guy like me. Yeah, I taught the world's first college accredited course on comic books at Indiana University in the 1970s. I then helped set up about another 100, 150 courses at colleges around the country. And that to me was important, that comic books begin to receive respectability, the fact that they are an indigenous American art form. As indigenous to this country as jazz. And that superheroes are accepted and acknowledged to be our contemporary folklore, our modern day mythology. Well, when the course was accepted, all I could hear was my mom's voice in my head saying, Michael, you could have the greatest creative ideas in the world, but if nobody knows about them, if you don't market yourself, if you don't market your work, you'll go unseen. And so I actually picked up a telephone and I called a major press syndicate and I got a reporter on the phone and I began to scream at the guy. I said, what is wrong with you? This is outrageous. He said, calm down. What are you talking about? So what am I talking about? I hear there's a course on comic books being taught at Indiana University. Are you telling me as a taxpayer in this state, they're using my money to teach our children comic books? I said, this has got to be some communist plot to subvert the youth of America and I slammed down the phone. And three days later, he found me. Not that he knew I made the call, but he tracked down who was teaching this crazy course. And an article went out with pictures in the newspaper that was picked up by virtually every newspaper in North America and a bunch in Europe. And my telephone started to ring. I never taught one comic book class that wasn't filled with reporters and television cameras. And it went out all over and I was doing radio and TV talk shows and it kind of opened the door for me to make my way to the world of comic books, movies and Batman. It's a great story and it's a great lesson to students everywhere about self-promotion, marketing, advertising and promoting yourself. You got to have a hook, you got to have the drive and you have to have the guts to stand up and do that. Well, part of what you have to know is this business, if you're interested in a career, whether it's film, new media, animation, telecommunications, it's all encompassed under one term called show business. And if you break it down, that's half show and half business. So it's important you have some degree of business sense going out, not only to market yourself, which is critically important and market your work, but also to protect yourself. If you're going to be dealing with your own creative ideas and work, your own intellectual property, you have to know how to protect yourself. You have to know what a contract looks like if you want to be a writer, a director, an actor, it's critically important. So one of the ways to do that is through internships. And I think internships are a critical part of an education going forward for anybody interested in getting involved in the field. And our businesses and all of our community leaders need to know that. We're going to take a quick break and we will be right back to learn a whole lot more about how Michael Euslin finally managed to weave his way into the business side of show business. Welcome back to Sunco Spotlight. And our guest today is Michael Euslin, the executive producer and the originator of all the Batman film franchise movies with many, many other credits to his name. And Michael, I want to talk to you a little bit about the reality of the real world when you graduated from college and wanted to get a job. How did that work out for you? Challenging, challenging. My senior year at college, every Friday I went down to the library and took out the magazine Variety, which is the Bible for the movie and television industry. I had a yellow pad with me. And I would write down the name of any studio executive that I could possibly find. By the end of my senior year, I had a list of 372 executives in the movie industry. So when it came time to send out my resume, I sent it to actual people, not to human resources or to whom it may concern. 372 went out. I got two job offers. One, they said, why don't you move to New York City? You'll join our agent training program here at our Big Talent Agency. First two years, you'll be in the mailroom. We'll pay you $95 a week. The next two years, you can be a secretary. And then the next two years, who knows? You could be an agent. I intended to get married after college. And I didn't think my wife and I could live in New York City on $95 a week. From LA came an offer from a producer for Universal. And he said, I like your resume. I like the fact that you've written comic books. That's very creative. Move to LA, and I'll make you my production assistant. You'll go for coffee. You'll do a lot of Xeroxing. And I'll start you at $95 a week. So plan B, I went to law school. Back to college. It was just I couldn't figure out how to get my foot in the door creatively where I wanted to. So I thought, well, I don't want to be a lawyer. But maybe if I go this route, I can then get a job on the business and legal and financial side of the movie world, learn how you produce and finance movies, and then network like crazy when no one was looking, sneak in the back window onto the creative side. And actually plan B worked for me. And you recommend everyone has a plan B? You have to have a plan B and a plan C and a plan D because the twists and turns of life are varied and multiple. They just keep coming at you. So you really, really have to have a fallback position and some alternatives. To me, it's the only way you can maneuver to kind of get to where you want to go. I think I've told you this before, but when I was 17 or so, I had read in Sarasota that a family out on Long Book Key had a son-in-law who had gotten the rights to Batman and it was going to be a Batman movie. I was so excited. I think I tracked down their name and address and sent them a card congratulating you and how great it was going to be to see a Batman movie because I was a fan girl. Never heard anything back, of course. And years and years later, when you and I met in New York, maybe a year and a half, two years ago, and we got to talking and found out you knew Sarasota, I suddenly was shocked to realize, oh my gosh, I stalked him when I was 17 years old. This is terrible. But it has been a long, long journey for you. What did you do during the 10 years that it took the studios and everyone to come on board and understand that you and Tim Burton and others were going to make that Batman that way? What did you do in between in that 10-year window? Well, from the time we acquired the rights to Batman until the time it was made, it was 10 years. And it was 10 years of rejection and a lot of silence. And what do you do when everybody tells you go away and rejects what you're trying to do? You have to look deep inside yourself. You really do and say, is the whole world right and I'm just stubborn or do I really believe in this? And I really believed in it. And my belief was never shaken, not for an instant. So you do everything you can possibly do to keep going and to hang on by your fingertips. I wrote comic books. I did my first movie ever for Next to No Money. It was a movie called Swamp Thing. Oh, Swamp Thing. I think we've all heard it back. It was, yeah, America's favorite walking, talking, spinach souffle. And I did a mini series for PBS, American Playhouse, called Three Sovereigns for Sarah, where I used my history degree. And it is the 100% historically accurate story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Starring Vanessa Redgrave and Kim Hunter, Patrick Magoo and Phyllis Thakster was an all-star cast. And we shot on all the original locations, still extant since 1692. My office was the second floor of the House of Seven Gables for six months, which was amazing for me. And very proud of that work. Very, very proud of that work. So whatever we could do, we did. And I also created my first animated TV series, which was my son when he was little, loved dinosaurs, loved outer space, anything about those two subjects. And I thought, how can I create a cartoon show for him about dinosaurs in outer space? Dinosaurs. And I created a show called Dinosaurs. We wound up doing 65 half-hour episodes. And we had a five-year run, which was really, really great. Now, there's a great story, too. We're going to come back to you in just a moment about how you held on by your fingertips to get dinosaurs made and where the turning point came. Stay with us. Welcome back to Suncoast Spotlight, our special guest today, Michael Usland, the originator and executive producer of all the Batman films, among many, many other achievements. Michael, you've been telling us a lot about the background and the history and how you got to be where you were in college, and first college professor of comic books and so forth. And we talked a little bit about the 10-year period between getting the rights to Batman to make a really serious dark movie and actually getting the movie made. And if I remember right, Dinosaurs was sort of a turning point for you? Very much so. Very much so. This was to be my first animated series. And you got to understand during that 10 years of waiting for Batman to happen, there were times I did not know where my next dollar was going to come from. It just kept taking longer and longer and longer. And we got to a point, I had a son. I had a mortgage, and things were getting very tough and very intense. And I'm trying to hold on by my fingertips till Batman arrives on the scene to save me. And... Literally and figuratively. Yeah, really, truly. So I had started to develop this animated series. And I began working with a well-known animation studio in Hollywood. And I ran out of money. I just ran out of money. I didn't know where to turn. And the wisest man that I have ever met, my father-in-law, who was an eye surgeon in Cincinnati, co-founder of the Cincinnati Eye Institute, he flew out. And he sat me down. He said, Michael, you went to law school for a purpose. So you would have something to fall back on. You can't call yourself a failure. You really gave it your best shot. You have produced some things. But you got to give it up. You now have to go take care of your family, be responsible, and go and be a lawyer and give this up. I said, I understand that. I said, it's just so, so frustrating. Because I know I'm close. And it's not just on Batman, but I've got this animated series. And he says, how long will it be? Do you believe? He said, and I want a really good, well-thought-out answer here, till you have not a promise, not a contract, but till you have in your hands a check for six figures. And I thought about it. I said, five months. He said, five months? I got five months. He said, all right, I'm gonna pay all your bills for the next five months. But 6 p.m., five months from today, if you don't have that check for six figures in your hand, then you give this up and you go back, you be a lawyer and you do what you need to do to support your family. So I thanked him profusely. And what an opportunity. And then set to work for about 20 hours a day, seven days a week for the next five months, doing everything I could to try to make something happen. Well, everybody in Hollywood, everybody working on dinosaurs, knew about this deadline that I was facing. So they kind of conspired. And by the time we got all the contracts signed and everything was a go for series, they waited an extra couple of days and arranged on the last day of the five months, a federal express truck pulled up sometime between noon and 3 p.m. And there were all the signed contracts and a check for six figures. I was able to pay back my father-in-law and that gave me enough leeway to get to Batman. So sometimes you just need a guardian angel. You've had a lot of superheroes in your life. Yeah, I really have. Teachers, father-in-law, it's great. Parents, yeah. Wife. Wife, absolutely. And your wife has just been a rock. I had the pleasure to meet Nancy, great lady. And she said, when she first met you, you made her laugh and you've kept it up all these years. It's been great. Everybody should know in the audience that I met my wife first day of my freshman year of college. Nancy was not even unpacked when we went out for the first time. So the two of us had to endure for four years. Everybody telling us you don't fall in love with the first person you set your eyes on in college. It just doesn't happen. And now we have been married 40 years, which I think may be a Hollywood record. I think so, how, what's the record out there, generally speaking, two, two and a half years? Two, two and a half months. Yeah, a month. That's great, great. Another question about writing your book. And we're gonna, we'll come back to this a little later, but when did you decide to start this book and how long did it take you from start to finish this? The Boy Who Loved Batman, the reason I wrote the book was based on the talks that I was giving around the country at colleges. And I realized that I had an opportunity to use my story to inspire young people and make them understand dreams are attainable. There's a way to do it if you actively get up off the couch and do it. So I knew I had to write the book. And I made the contract with Chronicle Books. The problem then became when am I going to find the time to write a book? And I always work best under pressure, so. I see that with the father-in-law deadline. Yeah, yeah, typically, you know, you put a deadline on me, an immediate deadline and I'm not too concerned. I know I'm gonna do it and it'll be okay. So it was getting to that time. And I finally cleared three months on my schedule because I cannot write. I have to get into a zone when I write creatively on anything I do. And you can't just flip it on and off like a switch. In fact, my wife, Nancy, will often see me sitting at a desk going like this and she'll go, why aren't you working? And I say, I am working. Hold that thought just a moment. I'm getting a signal that we have to take a quick break, but I just love to leave the audience waiting and wanting more. So come right back. Welcome back. We're here with Michael Usland talking about challenges, Batman, fathers-in-law, success, animation, dinosaurs, and a whole lot more. Michael, finish your story. Well, for me, it's more of a creative point. It's a writing, creative writing point. And that is that you can't flip it on and off like a switch. And if you ask me, how do you define what you do as a creative writer? It's 80% is this and 20% is this. And that's really the difference. So I couldn't be distracted. I couldn't do emails. I couldn't do text messages. I had to be concentrating and get in the zone every day on this book. So I came to Sarasota and I sequestered myself away in Sarasota for three months. And there was no radio. There was no TV. It was just me, my laptop, some of my notes, and soundtracks of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s that I could play to get my head back into five-year-old Michael's brain, 10-year-old Michael's brain, 20-year-old Michael's brain. And that worked really, really well. I worked seven days a week and I wrote for 18 hours a day. My goal became to write 5,000 words a day. And if I did, I gave myself a bonus. And I would show up at Bob Evans for a breakfast or I would go to a restaurant out in St. Armands or downtown. And that was my reward incentive. There were some brilliant days that I actually went out to Lido Beach. There's a little wooden bench at Lido Beach and I would take my laptop and I would work there. And I liked whenever possible to watch the sun sets on Lido Beach. There's nothing like, you know, not to do a Sarasota County commercial here, but there's nothing like that sunset into that pristine Gulf of Mexico blue water on that white sugar sand beach and watching that sink on the horizon. And if you're trying to write creatively, it's inspirational, it's great. Can I ask you a quick question about, talking about listening to music and so forth from the 50s and 60s and so forth to inspire you. What is your take on doing movies, doing television content, period, as opposed to updating it to current day? Do you think anything is lost when they do that? Cause there are some other things on the horizon coming up that I think are gonna be brought into current day rather than being done in the period they were written for. You know, there's an old, old Hollywood saying that period pieces don't sell. And I've heard production executives in their late 20s tell me that. And I said, what's the facts on that? Or are you just regurgitating something you've heard in the hallways here? And they said, well, everybody knows it's true. I said, really, what about Titanic? And they'll go, well, that was history, that's different. I said, okay, what about the Indiana Jones movies? They'll go, well, that's different. I go, how is that different? And they go, well, I guess it's really not different. And that same guy who told me that a year later, I picked up the phone one summer and I said, what about Captain America? And then I hung up the phone. We know how that turned out. That turned out really, really well. You know what, Jeannie, it's, is it intrinsic to the story? Is it intrinsic to the characters? Batman does not have to be a period piece even though he was created in 1939. It could very well easily be contemporary. Another character, maybe the shadow that was really, truly rooted in the 30s and 40s should be based there. So I think you have to go case by case and you have to get the chains of the old rules off your back and make responsible current decisions based on the stories. And that's one of the sometimes failings of Hollywood. Your screenplay is your blueprint. And if you don't have a good blueprint, then everything's gonna collapse and it has to be what works for the story and what works for the characters. So I think if we use that to govern rather than some old marketing concept, then everything will be just fine. That's great. You know, I wanna kind of close out today's session with something that I heard you say one time about how you chose the end of your book. I think it was a great story and could you share that? I can. I didn't know how to end the book. I mean, I still have career. I'm still doing all of these things. How am I gonna end my memoir? And then it took care of itself. I got a call from West Point, from a colonel in West Point. He said, every year we have a Cadets Choice Award. This year they have elected Batman, the Dark Knight as the character who best exemplifies the code of honor of West Point. Would you consider coming up here and accepting this award and speaking to the Cadets during their lunch hour? I said I would be thrilled, I would be honored. So Nancy and I went up to West Point, which was incredible. And they take us into the eating hall, which looked like I was on the set of Harry Potter. The Vikings could have built this place. It was stone walls coming to a V with a stone balcony in the center, vaulted ceilings with the flags. And they said, all right, we're gonna give you your award up there on the stone balcony. And on the V, there were 4,500 Cadets standing at attention at their tables. I said, how long would you like me to speak? I normally speak for about 30, 40 minutes. And they go, oh no, you've got to speak for less than five minutes. I go, what? He said, our lunch hour is only 15 minutes long. I said, what am I gonna tell them in less than five minutes? He said, well, that's your problem. So I said, okay. So we were up there, accept the award and they hand me the microphone. And I said, Cadets of West Point, when Bruce Wayne was a boy, he saw his parents murdered before his eyes on a concrete altar of blood. And at that moment, he sacrificed his childhood in the belief that one person can make a difference in the world. And he vowed that he would spend the rest of his life to get the guy who did this, to get all the bad guys, even if it meant having to walk through hell for the rest of his life in order to do it. And I said, in doing this, he became a warrior and he became an urban legend. I said, Cadets of West Point, you are Batman. And with that, they started to whoop and holler and throw their hats and stand on their chairs. And this went on for minutes. And it was pretty amazing. I still get the chills talking about it. A week later, I get a letter in the mail. It was, dear Mr. Yuslin, you don't know me. I'm the mother of one of the Cadets at West Point that you spoke to. She said, next month, our kids are all going to Afghanistan and Iraq. This is serious business for our families. You have not only boosted their morale, but you have given them a clarion call. As they walk around campus now, they're bouncing off each other's chest, high-fiving each other, going, I am Batman. You are Batman. And she said, in the years to come, whatever farm battlefield they find themselves on, this will be their call together. And she said, I can't thank you enough for that. And that, to me, said, well, I have the ending for my book. That's great. And I can't thank you enough for being here today. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing with students. Thank you for all the great work you've done creating an imaginative superhero landscape, as well as all your other many achievements. We really appreciate you, Mike. My pleasure, Jeannie. Thank you so much. Thank you. And stay with us another episode, another day. Come back and see Suncoast Spotlight.