Around eight o’clock Wednesday evening, the anticipation of the crowd gathered in Gaston Hall was palpable — it seemed that many of the assembled students half-expected Heath Ledger’s iconic Joker to vault onto the stage, that impish smile on his face and a freshly-sharpened pencil in his hand. But when Michael Uslan, the originator of the Batman film franchise and executive producer of this summer’s blockbuster The Dark Knight appeared, he presented an entirely different image: a kind-faced, silver-haired 57-year-old, with ostensibly nothing in common with the Joker — except for a rather garish necktie.

When the University Lecture Fund hosted its Fall-Kickoff Event, hundreds of Georgetown students, faculty and alumni gathered to hear Uslan share his reflections on life and show business.

Before taking questions from the audience, Uslan gave a brief sketch of his childhood love affair with comic books, his early days in the entertainment industry, and finally the fulfillment of his childhood dream: “I wanted to produce the definitive dark, serious film version of Batman.”

Uslan stressed that comic books were a major part of his life from the very beginning; for instance, he related his mother’s claim that, as a young boy, he taught himself to read with comics. By the time he went off to college, Uslan said, he owned around 35,000 comic books (dating all the way back to 1939).

One of Uslan’s most emphatic lessons of the evening was to “take what you love and make it your work.” He learned this lesson from his time at Indiana University in the early ’70s, where he seized an opportunity (in his words, “stuck a foot in the door”) to design his own experimental curriculum. Uslan became the country’s first instructor in the study of comic books, finding himself at the center of the news media’s attention.

Within weeks, Uslan had comic-book giants Stan Lee (of New York’s Marvel Comics) and Saul Harrison (of DC Comics) on the phone. An internship led to a crucial screenwriting gig — an early draft of the film adaptation The Shadow. After creative opportunities dried up, Uslan retreated, selling 20,000 comic books to pay for law school.

His return to the entertainment business wasn’t quite what he expected, however: Uslan spent three and a half years as a lawyer for United Artists, working behind-the-scenes on such classic films as Rocky, Apocalypse Now, and Raging Bull. “It’s so much better to take a calculated risk than to tell your children and grandchildren what ‘I could’ve been,’” Uslan said, referring to his departure from UA in order to buy the film rights to Batman. Ignoring Harrison’s discouragement — “it’s dead as a dodo” — Uslan formed Batfilm Productions in October of 1979, but unfortunately Harrison’s warning gained credibility when every Hollywood studio consequently rejected Uslan’s proposals.

Ten years later, the success of Tim Burton’s Batman vindicated all of Uslan’s tireless efforts and fulfilled his childhood ambitions. The film, which starred Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader and Jack Nicholson as the maniacal Joker, was the top grosser of 1989. It virtually defined the superhero movie as it exists today; the original’s moody art direction and music became trademarks of the genre.

Today, Uslan portrays himself as someone whose dreams came true with a lot of hard work, some luck and a sound outlook on life and its vicissitudes. Uslan urged the fresh faces in Gaston Hall to work at what one loves, to always have a “plan B,” to be persistent and to take the right risks. In other words, Uslan offered a good deal of hackneyed advice that somehow seemed more valuable in light of his enormous success.

Still, the ever-humble Uslan was enthusiastic in giving credit for The Dark Knight’s phenomenal popularity to writer/director Christopher Nolan, whom he called “a master,” star Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, “a consummate actor” in Uslan’s words. Uslan expressed his supreme confidence from the very beginning in Nolan and everyone else involved in the creative direction of the film, thanks to his experience in making 2005’s reboot Batman Begins and the crew’s “respect for the integrity of [the] property.”

“The Dark Knight really elevates the bar for comic-book films,” Uslan said. He echoed film critics in lauding Nolan’s iteration as “not only a great comic-book film, but a great film.”

More than anything, though, Uslan demonstrated that his love and appreciation for Batman as a character is as alive as it was in his youth. He speaks of Batman’s essential humanity, his mythological origins and the personal meaning and hope he brings to readers (and viewers) with a passion that some might call nerdy — or invigorating. It’s a welcome change to meet a film executive who cares so intensely for his product.

As for the one possible loose end to The Dark Knight — is Two-Face alive or dead? — Uslan is noncommittal. But with at least one more Nolan-Bale Batman film on the horizon, fans can dare to dream that the best is yet to come.