After Batman Returns hit theaters in 1992, it is no secret Tim Burton was interested in making a third and possibly final Batman film. On the director's commentary of Batman Returns special edition dvd, Burton stated that he held a meeting with Warner Brothers, and it was actually Warner Brothers that wanted to go a separate direction. A quick cash grab ide that would appeal to kids that nearly killed the Batman film franchise until it was rescued by Christopher Nolan in 2005 with his Batman Begins.
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Tim Burton grew up with the Batman 60's tv show starring Adam West. His version of Batman was actually his dark vision of that television program. Burton was not into comic books, although it was reported that Frank Miller's Dark Knight did offer some inspiration in his 1989 film. However, Burton was more inspired by a campy fun light hearted tv show that was inspired by the source material, the comic books. With so many anticipated sequels in 1989 included the second Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Lethal Weapon and even a third Indiana Jones which nabbed Sean Connery - Tim Burton's dark story of the caped crusader ruled the box office, breaking all records at that point.
After such a massive success, Warner Brothers quickly signed Burton to do the sequel to repeat his success. In 1992, Batman Returns hit theaters. The film had the returning actors including Michael Keaton, Michael Gough, & Pat Hingle. Tim Burton was an artistic director, not interested in franchise films at that point. He always said he wasn't interested in sequels, but it was perhaps the money as well as Warner Brothers giving him full trust in making whatever sequel he wanted to make. The sequel he had in mind did not tie in with the first film. He wanted to do a different type of film. He didn't want to just remake his first film. So the result is somewhat still debated to this day on weather or not it is a masterpiece equal if not better than the first or did not live up to the expectations. The unique superhero film featured four main characters - Batman, Catwoman, Penguin, and Max Shrek. The film was about how all of their lived intertwined. Critics complained that there wasn't enough Batman in the film, but the villains were certainly memorable even to the critics. Parents who took their kids to see a 'comic book movie' ended up complaining about the dark tone, some would argue it was actually darker in tone than the first gothic-like film. The film result was once again a massive hit in the box office despite the opinions of some.
After Batman Returns, Burton's Batman films had a strong following. Burton created a Gotham that was a fantasy world. A dark 1940's film noir. The films inspired one of the greatest animated shows of all time, created by Bruce Timm - Batman: The Animated Series. It seemed Burton's version of Batman & Gotham City was embedded in mainstream as the definitive Batman mythology. It came as a shock to many of the fans that Warner Brothers wanted to alter the Batman movie universe into something more campy, more kid friendly, and less dark.
Tim Burton met with the executives at Warner Brothers to discuss the next installment. Burton was not burned out of the franchise at this point, but he did have many projects in mind that he wanted to move forward with. Warner Brothers on the other hand had a problem. Batman became such a hit, they wanted to captialize on all of the popularity. So Warner Brothers made deals with fast food companies, clothes companies, and most importanlty toy companies. This merchandise was to be marketed toward kids. The issue was Batman Returns wasn't exactly kid friendly, so this caused parents to not be too interested in spending their money on merchandise on a film they didn't want their children to see. Some would say that the ultimate straw that broke the camel's back was the McDonald's deal. McDonalds produced Batman Returns happy meal toys that tied in to the movie. Parents wrote letters to various companies complaining about Batman Returns and threatened to boycott McDonalds.
Despite all the money made in the box office, Warner Brothers felt that the Batman title alone could equate into box office profit, so they wanted to still maximize their profit on the merchandise as well. Warner Brothers decided to mutually part ways with Tim Burton on his third film. At the meeting, Warner Brothers kindly suggest to Burton "well, wouldn't you be more interested in developing other projects at this time ? Are you sure you want to do another Batman film ?". The writing was on the wall, and Burton could take the hint. He wasn't that upset as he did have many other film ideas during this time. Warner Brothers had Burton stay on as producer, but he didn't produce much on the third film. Warner Brothers then turned to Joel Schumacher, the director of The Lost Boys and Flatliners. Schumacher had a fun colorful vision of how to do a Batman film. By this time, there was already a script developed that Schumacher rejected and hired a new screen writer for his 'Batman Forever' film. Schumacher did face one major problem, after a few meetings with Michael Keaton, Keaton wasn't interested in doing a kid friendly summer blockbuster. Keaton and Burton had a great relationship, as the two were artists. Schumacher had a specific job to make a movie that would be a commercial success and produce lots of merchandise. Keaton saw the writing on the wall, and declined. There was speculation he just outpriced himself with an asking price of 15 million plus box office revenue points. Schumacher casted Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne and the production continued on.
The result was a film that sold lots of toys, video games, McDonalds cups - but panned by critics as way too kid friendly for a Batman movie. It had much more campy elements that was more connected to the Adam West tv show than the previous Burton films. Some fans were turned off. The movie however did manage to still score a huge box office in 1995 and Warner Brothers was happy they made money, so they signed Schumacher to another one, with even more emphasis on making a two hour kid friendly movie that specifically aimed at selling toys. Schumacher thought his job was to direct a two hour toy commercial. He hired Hollywood's biggest name, Arnold Schwarznegger as the main villain, Mr. Freeze. He tried to get the biggest actress at the time for Poison Ivy, Julia Roberts, but she turned it down. The movie failed in the box office and was destroyed by all critics. It was too campy, so many one liners, the tone from the fourth movie was so far off from Burton's 1989 film, that it just seemed the franchise was over. In 1997, Warner Brothers hired Burton back to do another superhero DC movie, Superman. Burton left the Superman Lives project after a disaster production, and the film was cancelled. Back to Batman, it wasn't until a proven director Christopher Nolan presented a more serious tone to reboot the franchise, and the result was a huge success. |
The result was a film that sold lots of toys, video games, McDonalds cups - but panned by critics as way too kid friendly for a Batman movie. It had much more campy elements that was more connected to the Adam West tv show than the previous Burton films. Some fans were turned off. The movie however did manage to still score a huge box office in 1995 and Warner Brothers was happy they made money, so they signed Schumacher to another one, with even more emphasis on making a two hour kid friendly movie that specifically aimed at selling toys. Schumacher thought his job was to direct a two hour toy commercial. He hired Hollywood's biggest name, Arnold Schwarznegger as the main villain, Mr. Freeze. He tried to get the biggest actress at the time for Poison Ivy, Julia Roberts, but she turned it down. The movie failed in the box office and was destroyed by all critics. It was too campy, so many one liners, the tone from the fourth movie was so far off from Burton's 1989 film, that it just seemed the franchise was over. In 1997, Warner Brothers hired Burton back to do another superhero DC movie, Superman. Burton left the Superman Lives project after a disaster production, and the film was cancelled. Back to Batman, it wasn't until a proven director Christopher Nolan presented a more serious tone to reboot the franchise, and the result was a huge success.
Over the past ten years, I was always fascinated with Tim Burton's third Batman film and what it would have been like. We will never know, but there were some clues. In 2005, I created a popular website dedicated to Burton's Batman 3, back when everyone was using 'geocities' to make free websites. I would get emails from fans that would share links and information, it was always interesting. Here are some tidbits that was rumored or discovered:
-Burton had an idea of Riddler having a question mark shaved in his head -In the first script, Riddler had a pet rat. This is possibly inspired by Willard. -Robin Williams was heavily rumored to play Riddler in Batman 3. There were rumors of Mickey Dolenz and Brad Dourif of being Tim Burton's choices for Riddler. Dourif stated in 2013 that Burton originally wanted him as the Joker in the first film instead of Jack Nicholson. -Robin was in the Batman Returns script as an African American teenager who fixed the batmobile after the Penguin destroyed it. Burton hired Marlon Wayans who even came in for costume testing. Burton dropped his character in Batman Returns because he felt he had too many characters, but would use him in the next one. Schumacher dropped Wayans, and Wayans got paid for two movies he never even worked on. Burton did help the concept artist design the Robin suit (picture on the right) and the costume design was turned into an action figure for Batman Returns Hasbro toyline. -The conclusion is Riddler was going to be the main villain in the third film, Burton loved the 60s tv show and Riddler was the only main character he hasn't tackled at this point. -Billy Dee Williams was Harvey Dent in Burton's first film. In one of the rough drafts of Batman Returns, Harvey Dent was suppose to be the Max Shrek role, which meant that when Max was shocked at the end by Catwoman, that was going to lead into him becoming Two Face for the third film. Warner Brothers bought out Billy Dee Williams contract, so Schumacher could replace him with his choice of Tommy Lee Jones. -Burton was also interested in developing a solo Catwoman spin off film with Michelle Pfieffer. The project was shelved since Burton left, but was brought back several years later with Ashley Judd being the expected lead of the film. That fell through, and they finally were able to make the film which came out in 2004 starring Halle Berry, which was a disaster. -Burton stated in the 1989 Batman commentary that he was interested in having Billy Dee Williams come back as Two Face. -The original script when Burton was attached main villain was Riddler, but its up for debate if Two Face was indeed also in the first script, or added later when Schumacher came on board. |
Lee Batchler, screenwriter quoted: "Later on when we wanted to do the Riddler, it was going to be Robin Williams. With the Riddler, we wrote it with Robin's voice. He read our script and loved it, they just didn't make the deal. So when it came to Jim Carrey, he very much did our script. It was just a little less Robin Williams. It was a little more straight. It was very much the same character and the same lines."
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