Benjamin Melniker

Benjamin Melniker is an American film producer. He’s the executive producer of all the Batman movies (both live-action and animated), along with Michael E. Uslan.

In 1979, Melniker was approached by Michael E. Uslan at United Artists. Uslan proposed to him a very serious and dark movie project about Batman, and convinced him that the character could really work in a film, thus reinventing the whole genre of superhero movies. Melniker was impressed by Uslan’s ideas, and decided to proceed immediately to make a deal with DC Comics and get an option on the film rights, including animation (but excluding television), for Batman and all the characters attached to him.

On October 3, 1979, Melniker and Uslan concluded the agreement with the DC, and founded Batfilm Productions, Inc.

The two began to propose the project to various Hollywood studios, but was rejected by all of them. After several proposals, Melniker recalled two people, Peter Guber and Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records. He presented the project to Guber by phone, convincing him in a matter of minutes. A few days later Melniker and Uslan concluded the deal with Peter Guber, and his other associate Jon Peters. From that moment on, the ten years of waiting to take Batman to the big screen began.

Links

 * Wikipedia
 * IMDb