This Batman producer reveals why Joker actors win Oscars

Michael Uslan can clearly see himself on a bench outside the offices of Columbia Pictures on the day of darkest despair for him and the Batman.
It’s the early ’80s, and he and his producing partner Ben Melnicker had just run out of studios to pitch on Uslan’s dream of a new kind of Batman movie, one where Batman was a darker, more serious character than the campy caped crusader he’d been on TV in the ’60s (and at times in the comic books, too).
“I had my head