CHAPTER 3:
BATMAN BURTONHANDS
Tim Burton was an animator at Disney who got fired after using their stuff to make two short films, Vincent and Frankenweenie. Disney hated these shorts and fired Burton because they said his stuff was "too dark". Said the studio that would release an animated movie that was critizied for being too dark a year later.
Burton went out on his own. He tried to direct the black comedy, After Hours. However,when Burton found out that Martin Scorsese wanted to direct, he left consideration. However, Paul Rubens got a hold of Burton's work from Disney and was impressed and put Burton in charge of his film, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. That movie was a decent hit, vut got major praise and got a big cult following over time. Due to this, WB put Burton in charge of two projects - Bettlejuice and Batman.
Burton was not a fan of the 1985 treatment, claiming it was campy. So Burton got his girlfriend to write a 30-page-treatment. Burton was not a comic book fan. However, he did read Killing Joke and Dark Knight Returns and was impressed by the darker tone. WB liked Burton's idea of a darker tone and got Steven Englehart to rewrite the rewrite.
Burton then got his friend, Sam Hamm, to rewrite the script because he was a comic book fan. Hamm took the Batman origin and turned it into a flashback, replaced Silver St. Cloud with Vicki Vale. replaced Rupert Thorne with Carl Grissom (a new character), and took the Dick Grayson supporting role and reduced it to a cameo.
Now for casting. Sean Young was considered for Vicki Vale, but the role went to Kim Bassinger. Robin was supposed to be in the movie, with Michael J. Fox and Eddie Murphy being considered and Marlon Waynes coming the closest to getting the role. Burton then cast Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent. His reason for casting Williams, a black man, was that he wanted him to play Two-Face in a later movie, with his evil half being white to play the whole "black-and-white" concept.
When it comes to casting, the hardest to cast were Batman and the Joker. They went through a lot of known actors for Joker, including James Woods, Tim Curry, John Lithgow, and the late David Bowie. Burton wanted Brad Dourif, but the studio said no. Then they all wanted Jack Nicholson, but he said no. So they cast Robin Williams, but when Nicholson found out, he wanted the role. So they booted Williams and got Jack. I guess that's why Robin Williams is...
Okay, one lasting casting: Batman. Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Charlie Sheen, Tom Selleck, Harrison Ford, and Dennis Quaid were all considered. However, Burton didn't want a well-known action actor. Burton ended up casting Micheal Keaton. His reasoning for casting Keaton was that he looked like someone who needed to dress like a bat to scare criminals. Because criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so Keaton became a bat! And thus is born this weird creature of the dark, the avenger of comic changes... THE FANBOY RAGE!!! To describe the reaction to the casting as Keaton, Kevin Smith said it best - "The shouting about Micheal Keaton as Batman was so ****ing loud and proliferate in 1988-89, that even though the internet didn't exist, the internet was still mad".
When the movie was released was a huge sucess. The movie made $250 million in its domestic gross and got great reviews from the critics. Espicially for Micheal Keaton's performance. However, not everything got praise. The idea of the Joker killing Batman's parents was heavily panned by comic book fans. So much so, that someone came up with a theory that Batman sees the killer of his parents in every villain he encounters and that Joker didn't kill the Waynes. Which is a stupid theory when you think about it. Also, the songs by Prince were criticized as out of place.
In 1990, a year after the release of the first film, WB tried to get a sequel off the ground. They tried to get one filming by May 1990. However, it was delayed when Burton wanted to direct Edward Scissorhands. After that, Burton agreed to make a sequel. Sam Hamm wrote the first two drafts, which included Catwoman and Penguin going after treasure. The draft was also going to include Havey Dent. Dent was replaced by Max Shreck. However, while Shreck's electricution led to his death in the final film, Dent's electricution was his transformation into Two-Face.
But then WB made their big mistake... They gave Burton full creative control!
Wesley Stick ended up writing a draft and stayed for the whole shoot. He gave Penguin a plan that would be a paraell to the Moses story (death of every firstborn). His script also had a role for Robin. Originally, Robin was going to be the leader of a teenage criminal gang who became Batman's ally. Later on, he became a black teen garage mechanic, and Marlon Waynes was cast before being cut, due to character over load.
Now for casting. A lot of actors was considered for Catwoman. Including Cher, Madonna, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and more. However, the role went to Annette Benning. Then she got pregnant, so she left. So Michelle Pfiefer was cast. Billy Dee Williams was going to appear whe Harvey Dent was in the script. Also, Sean Young, who was considered for Vicki Vale in the last film, said she should have been cast. She even went to the studio in a homemade Catwoman costume, demanding an audition.
Hey, Sean Young...
When the film was released, it got mixed reviews. Some said it was too odd and overstuffed. While others enjoyed the performances and characters. However, it didn' do as well as the first one.
So after, mixed reviews, and a somewhat disappointing box office run, WB gave the Batman franchise to... Joel Shumacher!!!
TO BE CONTINUED...