Skip to main content

'Batkid Begins' is the origin story of San Francisco's smallest superhero

'Batkid Begins' is the origin story of San Francisco's smallest superhero

/

Documentary follows five-year-old Miles Scott as he saves a city

Share this story

The city of San Francisco — and most of Twitter — stopped and watched last November, as five-year-old Miles Scott became pint-sized superhero Batkid. Miles, who has leukemia, was given the chance to dress up as his favorite comic icon by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. His day was made even more remarkable by the reaction from the city he wanted to save, as thousands of people turned out to watch the tiny crusader catch cartoon criminals around San Francisco. Now a new film, titled Batkid Begins, aims to explore Miles' story. The feature-length documentary, created by filmmaker Dana Nachman, was teased at Comic-Con with a three-minute trailer that later appeared online courtesy of Deadline.

Miles' escapades quickly drew attention — in addition to the 7,000 locals turned out to see Miles fight "crime" at city hall, the Batkid was the subject of 400,000 tweets, The San Francisco Chronicle created a special Batkid-specific front page, and President Obama personally thanked him for his service via Vine. Nachman's film will tell the story of Batkid's big day, but it will also look at the boy behind the mask, and his family, struggling to deal with their young son's diagnosis. Batkid Begins is currently in the midst of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and has three weeks to raise just over half of the $100,000 Nachman wants to finish the film.