With the future of Bruce Wayne safely in the hands of Christian Bale, Michael Keaton has moved on from his superhero days to a new position behind the camera.

At the Sundance Film Festival early this year, Keaton’s directorial debut, "The Merry Gentlemen," introduced audiences to a fresh creative side to the actor. Also starring in the film as a suicidal assassin, Keaton slowed the pace of what would typically be an action-packed story of an innocent woman, played by Scottish actress Kelly MacDonald, falling for an amoral hitman into a moody and dark emotional film.

Keaton described the story of these two unlikely friends to The New York Times saying, “What I love about this movie is that there’s this island, and two people who happen to wash up on it at the same time, and pretty soon the water’s going to rise, and there’s not going to be that island. What I love is that the most dangerous guy in this world is actually the best guy for her to be with, the safest and, in a weird way, the most noble and honorable.”

Born Michael John Douglas, Keaton was the youngest of seven children in an Irish Catholic family living in a Scots-Irish community in Pennsylvania. After the stardom of actor Michael Douglas, son of Kirk Douglas, Michael realized he needed a different stage name, choosing Keaton after reading an interview with actress Diane Keaton.

He broke into film with memorable roles as Batman in several Tim Burton films following the dark hero as well as his title role in Beetle Juice. More recently, Keaton was nominated for a SAG award for his role as James Angleton on the TNT miniseries The Company

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