Batman Character THE GRAY GHOST Live-Action Short

Heart-Beat Productions has created a live-action short inspired by the Batman: The Animated Series episode titled “Beware The Gray Ghost.” The episode reveals that Bruce Wayne’s childhood hero was The Gray Ghost and that the fictional TV show character might be connected to a string of recent heists in Gotham. Fans will remember that The Gray Ghost was voiced by '60s TV Batman star Adam West.

Directed by J.L. Topkis and written by Matt Landsman, THE GRAY GHOST : The Lost Reel is a fun noir adaptation of what it could have been like if it were an actual show. It would be great to see someone do a whole web series based on “lost episodes” of The Gray Ghost.

Heart-Beat Productions presents a short film Directed by J.L. Topkis and Written by Matt Landsman. We are filmmakers with a life-long passion for Bruce Timm’s BATMAN: The Animated Series. “Growing up BATMAN was our childhood hero, therefore we made a short piece about Batman’s own childhood hero - THE GRAY GHOST.” Based on the classic 1992 episode of BATMAN: The Animated Series, ‘Beware The Gray Ghost,’ our film chronicles the live-action adventures of The Gray Ghost aka Simon Trent. In the animated series, Trent (voiced by Adam West) is depicted as a down-on-his-luck actor who was typecast for life playing a masked avenger on a black-and-white serialized TV show. In the classic episode, Batman was searching for a lost reel the TV show in order to solve a copycat crime. Our film presents The Gray Ghost as an actual television show that Bruce Wayne would have watched as a child. Both Emerson College Graduates of the Class of 2012, The Gray Ghost is the second collaboration between Jake Topkis and Matt Landsman. Prior to directing this non-profit fanfilm, Jake Topkis completed his first feature film, IN SEARCHING, which was shot in his hometown, Park City, UT in the summer of 2013. Matt Landsman worked as an assistant director on IN SEARCHING in addition to writing and producing various short films while he earned his MFA from Chapman University. Starring Forrest Lancaster as The Gray Ghost/Simon Trent and Zhenya Kechina as Veronica Vreeland. Bruce Wayne is played by Bryson Pitts, with Darren Gann as Joe Chill! This is an independent, non-profit, artistic expression created purely for fun. It is in no way connected to, or endorsed by Warner Brothers or DC Comics, nor is it intended to undermine or compete with any existing or forthcoming material. Characters portrayed in this film are TM and (c) of DC Entertainment, a Time Warner company. Twitter: @JakeTopkis Twitter: @MattLandsman Twitter: @HB_Productions