Michael Uslan is ready to help change the world again.

Uslan, an Ocean Township native, has served as the producer of the “Batman” film franchise for 30 years. He was there when director Tim Burton and Oscar-winning production designer Anton Furst crafted the Caped Crusader’s game-changing 1989 film, a stylized gothic adventure that helped shape our modern superhero-focused cinema landscape.

Nearly 20 years later, Uslan worked with writer/director Christopher Nolan on his acclaimed, grounded trilogy reimagining the world of Batman for a post-9/11 world, including the nearly-universally hailed 2008 urban crime epic “The Dark Knight.”

Uslan is shaking things up again as executive producer of “Joker.” Due out Oct. 4 via Warner Bros. Pictures, the film promises a gritty origin story for Gotham City’s Clown Prince of Crime, with Joaquin Phoenix in the title role.

"Three times we have completely reinvented how comic book movies are made and perceived," said Uslan. "If we had done it once in '89 it would have been enough. And then as things went off track and powers-that-be got so enamored with toys and games and Happy Meals that everything went off the side rails, to be able to say, ‘OK, we brought it back even better and different and better than ever,’ that would have been enough. And now this.”

Director Todd Phillips' vision has already garnered plenty of attention. Earlier this month, it took home the top prize at the 76th Venice International Film Festival, the Golden Lion Award.

Previous Golden Lion winners, including Laurence Olivier's "Hamlet" (1948) and Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water" (2017) went on to win Best Picture honors at the Academy Awards.

However, not all of the pre-release discussion has been positive. Seven years after 12 people were killed and 70 were injured at a 2012 Aurora, Colorado, screening of Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises," five family members of Aurora victims sent a letter to Warner Bros. this week.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the letter asked the studio to "end political contributions to candidates who take money from the NRA and vote against gun reform" and "actively lobby for gun reform."

Warner Bros. responded with a statement on Tuesday stating that neither Phillips' film nor Phoenix's character is an endorsement of real-world violence.

"It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero,” read the statement, according to Variety.

The Aurora cinema where the "Dark Knight Rises" shooting occurred is not planning to screen "Joker," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

This month, Phoenix walked out of an interview with The Telegraph following a question regarding connections between the Joker character and real-life mass shootings.

What would Uslan say to audience members apprehensive over the prospect of a film looking to paint an empathetic portrait of a sociopathic killer in this modern, fear-filled age?

“I would almost turn that question over to the teachers of film around the world, to the academicians, as to what is the role of cinema, thematically (and with regard to) responsibility," said Uslan. "Look at what I consider some of the most important films: What have they done? They’ve held up a mirror to our society, and there are times when people don’t want to see that reflection, they want to run from it. They don’t want to acknowledge it because sometimes the reflection shows warts and all, whether it’s biases and prejudices or what’s happened to our society, reflecting the times.”

Uslan also cited provocative works of 1970s cinema that he described as "Joker" antecedents such as Scorsese's "Mean Streets" (1973), Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) and Richard Attenborough's "Magic" (1978).

“If anything, I believe movies can shake people up and bring issues to attention, whether it’s about guns or the need to treat mental illness or the need for civility and for us to start talking with each other instead of at each other again," he said. "You can’t suppress that, you can’t censor that.”

“Joker” director Todd Phillips is the man behind the wildly successful “Hangover” trilogy of R-rated comedies, and already an Academy Award nominee for his work on the “Borat” screenplay.

“Think about this for a second: to elect to tackle the Joker in any way, shape or form when you’re following in the footsteps of (previous Joker actors) Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Mark Hamill, that’s unbelievable,” said Uslan. “And that requires a clarity of vision. That also requires something else: It requires passion. It requires knowledge, love for a character, understanding of a character even if you’re willing to go down different doors with him.”

Phillips' screenplay, co-written with Scott Silver, takes its cues from the character's DC Comics origins but tells its own tale. In an interview with Empire published this summer, Phillips said he and his team didn't follow anything from the comics.

"We just wrote our own version of where a guy like Joker might come from," Phillips said. "That’s what was interesting to me. We’re not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker. It’s about this man.”

One thing consistent with DC Comics history is the central role New Jersey plays in the proceedings.

For years, comics and films have depicted Gotham City as being located in the Garden State, while the Joker has been played by a pair of Monmouth County natives, Neptune native Nicholson in Burton's film and Cesar Romero of Bradley Beach in the cult classic mid-1960s television series.

Nolan shot part of his "Dark Knight" trilogy in Newark, and Phillips filmed "Joker" in Jersey City and Newark in October and November 2018.

“It’s a look that feels 1970s to me, that is evocative in Times Square, 42nd Street and what that was. … The whole look of this picture is unlike any comic book movie you’ve ever seen before," Uslan said of Phillips' North Jersey Gotham. "It feels like a crime drama that (Martin) Scorsese might have done, but it is pure Todd Philips.”

New York Comic Con returns to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan Thursday, Oct. 3 through Sunday, Oct. 6.

Uslan will be in town for a talk on the 30th anniversary of 1989's "Batman" 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4. He'll take part in a remembrance of Marvel icon Stan Lee 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5. At 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6 he'll sign the new edition of his 2011 memoir, "The Boy Who Loved Batman," on sale Tuesday, Oct. 1.

Are you all about arts and entertainment? Then make sure you don't miss a single story by our features reporter Alex Biese. Subscribe to the Asbury Park Press today for unlimited digital access.

Learn more and consider a subscription at https://offers.app.com/specialoffer.