Gary Collinson traces the many screen incarnations of The Dark Knight in the second of a three-part feature… read part one here.
Just as Superman’s comic-book debut had led to the creation of Batman almost forty years earlier, the success of Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie (1978) helped plant the seed that would ultimately bring The Dark Knight back to movie screens. Acquiring the Batman film rights in 1979, former comic-book writer Michael E. Uslan and his producing partner Benjamin Melniker hired uncredited Superman scribe Tom Mankiewicz to provide a script far removed from the campy 1960s TV series, which had by that time become synonymous with the character, in an attempt to take The Caped Crusader back to his roots.
Budgeted at $15m and initially set for release in 1981, the film languished in development hell for a number of years with the likes of Ivan Reitman, Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis and the Coen brothers rumoured to be in the frame for the director’s chair. The task eventually fell to up-and-coming filmmaker Tim Burton, who was brought on board following the popularity of his debut feature Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985). “The first treatment of Batman, the Mankiewicz script, was basically Superman, only the names had been changed,” said Burton, who felt that the screenplay – an extended origin story of both Batman and the Joker, set in the near future and ending with the introduction of Robin – failed to capture the essence of the character. “The Mankiewicz script made it obvious that you couldn’t treat Batman like Superman, or like the TV series, because it’s a guy dressing up as a bat and no matter what anyone says, that’s weird.”
Although Warner Bros. had been reluctant for the film to adopt too serious a tone, they were buoyed by the popularity of Frank Miller’s seminal limited series Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), which had reinvigorated the character and paved the way for classic storylines such as Miller’s Batman: Year One (1987) and Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke (1988). This prompted the studio to give their support Burton’s darker vision and after Julie Hickson and Steve Englehart had tried their hands at producing treatments, comic book fan Sam Hamm was brought in to mould the screenplay, which received approval from Batman co-creator Bob Kane and soon became a popular bootleg in comic book stores and conventions. However, Warner Bros. were still concerned that audiences would be turned off by such a dark, psychological take and stalled on giving the green light until Burton’s second film Beetlejuice (1988) became a box-office hit.
Commencing pre-production in April 1988, one of the first moves was to secure Jack Nicholson as Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker. The Oscar-winning actor was given the most lucrative contract in movie history, nabbing $6m upfront along with a percentage of the box office gross and merchandising sales, a deal rumoured to have netted the star around $75m in total. Resisting pressure to cast a big-name movie star for the title role (with the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray and Mel Gibson under consideration), Burton turned to Michael Keaton, his lead from Beetlejuice, in a move that led to unprecedented controversy with Warner Bros. receiving over 50,000 protest letters from angry fans. Rounding out the cast were Sean Young (replaced by Kim Basinger after suffering an accident while filming), Michael Gough, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Palance, Pat Hingle, Jerry Hall, Tracey Walter, Robert Wuhl and William Hootkins.
Hiring celebrated designer Anton Furst to bring Gotham City to life (a move that would see Furst share an Academy Award for Best Art Direction – Set Direction with Peter Young), the production shifted to Britain’s Pinewood Studios where it occupied the majority of the studio’s sound stages between October 1988 and January 1989. Filming in Britain, Burton was afforded a greater deal of independence and the highly secretive production was able to avoid the growing media interest in Hollywood, while a teaser trailer released at Christmas 1988 sent fan anticipation into overdrive and helped to quell the controversy over Keaton as Batman.
In the months prior to its release, “Batmania” reached unparalleled levels with over $750m of merchandise flying off the shelves, leading The New York Observer to describe it as “less movie than a corporate behemoth”. Released on June 23rd, 1989, Batman shattered the record opening weekend set by Ghostbusters II (1989) just two weeks prior, banking $43.6m on its way to a worldwide gross of $411m. Critical reaction was mixed but the impact of Batman on the film industry was unquestionable, leading to an increased focus on opening weekends, a shortening of the time between theatre and home video releases and an even greater emphasis on the all-important merchandising tie-ins.
After the phenomenal success of Batman, Warner Bros. were eager to capitalise with a follow-up although Burton was cautious about his involvement, stating that he would only return “if the sequel offers something new and exciting”. With Burton moving on to direct Edward Scissorhands (1990), Sam Hamm produced two drafts featuring Penguin and Catwoman as the villains only for his screenplay to be rejected by the director, who then commissioned Daniel Waters (Heathers) to work on a rewrite. After another five drafts, an uncredited Wesley Strick (Arachnophobia) was brought in to refine the plot, including the formation of Penguin’s ‘master plan’ to kill the firstborn children of Gotham, a concept that pleased Burton and Warner Bros. but proved difficult for many toy manufacturers to stomach.
Having won over the majority of Bat-fans, Michael Keaton returned to the cowl alongside Danny DeVito as Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman (Annette Bening was the original choice but dropped out of the movie after falling pregnant). Also joining the cast was Christopher Walken as ruthless business mogul Max Shreck, while Michael Gough and Pat Hingle reprised their roles as Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. Robin – who was envisioned as a young gang leader who would become an ally of The Dark Knight – was written out of the script at a late stage, with Marlon Wayans having already attended costume fittings and contracted for the part.
Despite having spent $20,000 per week storing the Gotham City sets at Pinewood, the decision was made to transfer the production of the sequel to Hollywood. Filming began in June 1991 with a budget of $65m as opposed to the original’s $48m, and Batman Returns made its debut in cinemas a year later on June 19th 1992. The film opened with $45.69m in North America (the highest opening weekend of the year) and went on to gross $266m world-wide, although Warner Bros. were disappointed that it hadn’t managed to outperform the original. It was also criticised for its increased level of violence and sexual references, with McDonalds withdrawing their Happy Meal promotion in response to a ‘parental backlash’ against the film.
While Burton was busy making Batman Returns the producing team of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett and Eric Radomski were hard at work developing an animated incarnation that was partly inspired by Fleischer Studios’ classic Superman series. Drawing on the ‘otherworldly timelessness’ of Burton’s Batman films the series opted for a unique look, mixing Art Deco and 1940s film noir influences to create a distinctive visual style, along with an adult-orientated approach that was sorely lacking in past superhero cartoons. Kevin Conroy was hired as the voice of Bruce Wayne / Batman, while a host of familiar names were brought in to portray members of the Rouge’s Gallery including Mark Hamill (The Joker), Roddy McDowall (The Mad Hatter), Ron Perlman (Clayface), George Dzundza (The Ventriloquist) and David Warner (Ra’s Al Ghul).
Batman: The Animated Series premiered on Fox on September 7th 1992 and was originally broadcast on weekday afternoons before being promoted to a prime-time Sunday evening slot that December. Struggling to maintain ratings against stiff competition, the series soon moved to an earlier timeslot and by the second season it had been renamed The Adventures of Batman & Robin. The show continued into a third season and entered syndication before concluding its initial run in 1995 after a total of 85 episodes, with much of the crew then going on to develop Superman: The Animated Series (1996 – 2000), with Conroy’s Batman making a number of guest appearances. An additional 24 episodes went into production in 1997 under the title The New Batman Adventures, while a 1999 spin-off Batman Beyond continued the adventures with a younger Batman, Terry McGinnis, taking over from an aging Bruce Wayne.
Batman: TAS has left a lasting legacy on the superhero genre and is often described as one of the best animated television shows of all-time. It spawned a $6m feature-length theatrical release entitled Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), along with direct-to-video releases Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998), Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker (2001) and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003), in addition to introducing characters such as Officer Renee Montoya and Harley Quinn into the Batman mythos. Kevin Conroy’s Batman remained a fixture in the DC Animated Universe, guest starring in Static Shock (2000-2004) and as a lead in Justice League (2001-2004) and Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006), which serve as sequels to both the Batman and Superman animated series.
While Batman: TAS was proving popular on the small screen, Warner Bros. were keen to get the movie franchise moving once again. Concerned that the overly dark tone of Batman Returns had impacted on its box office performance, studio executives were looking to adopt a more family friendly approach for the third installment. As such Burton’s role was restricted to that of producer with Joel Schumacher brought in to steer the project in a new direction. Lee Batchler and Janet Scott-Batchler were hired to produce a script, which would feature The Riddler and Two-Face as the primary villains (Schumacher initially wanted to adapt Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, an idea nixed by the studio), with Akiva Goldsman contributing to a second draft.
Michael Keaton was originally set to reprise his role as The Dark Knight for a third time but pulled out citing his disappointment at the new direction of the series. Actors under consideration as a replacement included Daniel Day-Lewis, William Baldwin and Johnny Depp before Val Kilmer secured the part, having impressed Schumacher with his performance in Tombstone (1993). Keaton wasn’t the only actor to be replaced with Billy Dee Williams (Harvey Dent in the original movie) and Marlon Wayans (who had signed on to play Robin in Batman Returns and remained under contract) losing out to Tommy Lee Jones and Chris O’Donnell respectively. Completing the cast were Jim Carrey – who beat off competition from Robin Williams for the part of The Riddler – and Nicole Kidman as love interest Dr. Chase Meridian, along with Drew Barrymore, Ed Begley, Jr. and the returning Michael Gough and Pat Hingle.
To further distinguish the film from its predecessors, Schumacher then enlisted the talents of production designer Barbara Ling to devise a new-look Gotham City, blending 1930s New York City with modern Tokyo and more than a twist of neon, while the Batsuit, Batcave and Batmobile were also given makeovers. Filming commenced in September 1994 with Schumacher going on to encounter a host of problems with his star, claiming that Kilmer was confrontational with the crew and at times refused to speak to the director. He also found Tommy Lee Jones difficult, leading Schumacher to comment “I pray I don’t work with them again.”
Nevertheless, the $100m-budgeted sequel was completed to schedule and – after exorcising 40 minutes from the initial cut – Batman Forever was released in North America on June 16th, 1995, banking $52.78m to claim the biggest opening weekend of the year and the series to date. Despite mixed reviews (including criticism of the heightened commercialism) Batman Forever managed to outperform the second instalment and went on to amass a global box office haul of £336.5m.
Confident of a return to box office form after the ‘disappointment’ of Batman Returns, Warner Bros. greenlit a fourth instalment as soon as Batman Forever hit screens. With Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman hired to continue their directing and scriptwriting duties once more, the duo began working on the project during production of Schumacher’s A Time to Kill (1996). The pair drew on elements of the Emmy Award-winning Heart of Ice to conceive a plot that would see the Dynamic Duo battle to save Gotham from the deranged biologist Mr. Freeze, a role that was ultimately rewritten to accommodate the casting of action legend Arnold Schwarzenegger for a reported fee of $25m.
As for who would done the Batsuit for the fourth outing, there was no question whether Schumacher could continue his working relationship with Val Kilmer. “He sort of quit; we sort of fired him… it depends on who’s telling the story”, said the director on the decision to replace Kilmer with George Clooney, then best known for his work on the TV drama ER. Joining Clooney were the returning Chris O’Donnell (Robin), Michael Gough (Alfred) and Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon) – with the latter two having the distinction of being the only actors to appear in all four movies in the series – along with newcomers Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl), Uma Thurman (Poison Ivy), Elle Macpherson (love interest Julie Madison) and professional wrestler Jeep Swanson (Bane).
Wanting to pay homage to the 1960s television series, Schumacher went all out on the camp with costuming choices such as nipples and enlarged codpieces (which ultimately lead to homosexual interpretations), while production designer Barbara Ling described the neon-saturated Gotham as “like a World’s Fair on ecstasy”. Reportedly instructing the actors to treat each take as if they were making a cartoon, Schumacher’s intentions were clear to Chris O’Donnell. “On Batman Forever, I felt like I was making a movie. The second time, I felt like I was making a kid’s toy commercial”.
Pushed through a tight production schedule to meet an ambitious release date on June 20th, 1997, Batman & Robin proved to be an unmitigated disaster. Universally panned by audiences and critics alike for its in-your-face toyetic approach and poor ‘family-friendly’ humour, the $140m budgeted sequel failed to recoup that figure at the North American box-office and, although it did go on to collect a worldwide gross of $238m, the damage had already been done. “I believe I actually killed it off,” said George Clooney in the aftermath of the film’s release, and he was almost right. Warner Bros. had released four films in the eight years since Tim Burton first brought The World’s Greatest Detective to the screen in 1989, and after the catastrophe of Batman & Robin, it would take another eight to bring him back.
Continue to part three.
For more on the making of Batman and Batman Returns, check out Freakishly Clever, Trevor Hogg’s in-depth profile on the career of director Tim Burton.
Related:
Short Film Showcase – Batman: Dead End (2003)
Short Film Showcase – Batman: City of Scars (2010)
Gary Collinson
