The website,
1989batman.com, has posted some fantastic never-before-seen images of an unused set built for Tim Burton's
Batman Returns. It's a store, located in Gotham Square, that sold nothing but
Batman merchandise.
Daniel Waters, who wrote screenplay, originally planned to give the Batman store a fairly significant role in the film as it would've appeared in the
opening scene and then later on when The Penguin's
Red Triangle Circus Gang terrorized Gotham City. Below, are images of the set and excerpts from Waters' script.
FROM OUT OF THE DARKNESS OF THE OPENING CREDITS WE GO TO...
EXT. A STORE--EARLY EVENING OF THE CURRENT ERA
Where the Batman logo fills the frame with a portentous soundtrack boom. A playful salvo of snowballs reverberates against this image as the logo is revealed to be a hanging centerpiece in the window of a Batman merchandising store, along with Batman sleds, lunch boxes, T-shirts, and ticking clocks...
The store was going to be destroyed by
The Devil Fire Breather, but when Burton decided to ditch the Batman store it was replaced with a mundane toy shop.
EXT. THE PLAZA--NIGHT
A FIRE BREATHER smashes open a big hole in the Batman Store display window with his Fire-rod. He sticks his rod in his mouth, then bellows a cloud of flame onto the Batman merchandise.
Skip to the :25 mark to watch
And that's not all. See the
Batman sleds in the display window (above). In the original script, the sled would've appeared twice. In one scene, a father would've been seen hiding the gift from his son in front of the Shreck department store, and in another scene the
Strongman, from the Red Triangle Circus Gang, would've flung the sled at Jim Gordon's car. In the film, the Strongman at one point does swing a sled, but it isn't a Batman sled. You can watch that at the
:55 mark in the video below.
CLICK HERE - MORE BEHIND-THE-SCENES IMAGES
In the second of the blockbuster Batman films, the physically deformed criminal genius The Penguin threatens Gotham City--and, helpless, the entire city can only pray that Batman Returns. Only Batman (Michael Keaton) can defend the city from total chaos as The Penguin (Danny DeVito) lays twisted waste to a great metropolis. Meanwhile, the Dark Knight may have met his equal in the lethally lithe Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer)--only he doesn't know if she is feline friend ... or foe.
Starring: Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Christopher Walken as Max Shreck Directed by Tim Burton * Screenplay by Daniel Waters
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I am Jay Jayson, one of the greatest writers and researchers to ever grace the comicbookmovie.com community. If there is a story or a picture hiding on the internet I will find it.