Starring Batman’s Michael Keaton (last seen in Need For Speed) Birdman (fully titled Birdman, Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) is the tale of a washed-up Hollywood actor trying to put on a stage-play and running up against all sort of internal and external demons as he attempts to move past his previous successes and prove he’s still relevant; as seen in the first official Birdman trailer below.
Presumably drawing on his own experiences of turning down the opportunity to continue playing Batman after Batman Returns (and forever being remember as the Caped-Crusader), Keaton stars as an actor who once starred as an iconic superhero (named Birdman), but is desperately trying to move past the decades-old role in the new Alejandro González Iñárritu (Biutiful) film which looks both brilliant, and utterly mad, at the same time.
Co-starring Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Naomi Watts (King Kong), and Edward Norton (Fight Club), Birdman has been edited to appear as if the entire film is one continuous take, and is due to be released in the US on August 17th, before opening the 71st Venice International Film Festival on August 27th, although it won’t make its official UK release date until January 2nd 2015.
