Billion Dollar Batman

by Bruce Scivally

  At this relatively late stage, the studio was still urging the filmmakers to include Robin in the plot. Waters discarded the feral wild-child teenager of Hamm’s draft, but came up with a take on the character that was still far removed from his comic book origin. Late in the second act of the script, Batman is looking for a way to deactivate the Penguin’s remote-control device from his Batmobile. He wrests control of the car long enough to crash it into a garage, where a “kid” mechanic who is a Batman fanatic helps him un-booby-trap the car. The kid also fights off some of the Penguin’s goons with deft martial arts moves. As they continue to come under attack, Batman and the kid leap into the Batmobile—with the kid in the driver’s seat. As he maneuvers the car past the Penguin’s men, it jettisons its sides and becomes a streamlined missile-type vehicle. When Batman finally stops to let the kid out and peels away, the kid wipes some muck off his uniform, revealing a round patch with an “R” on it. The mechanic reappears at the end, using a descrambler he took off the Batmobile to help Batman neutralize the Penguin’s bomb-toting penguin army. Recalling his and Burton’s efforts to work Robin into the story, Waters recalled, “I could tell he was not enthusiastic about it from the get-go. But we went in more of a thing like it was something that would be hinted at, and then developed in a later movie.”29

  Waters was pleased with his final script, though he realized it was overly ambitious. “That first draft was hilarious,” he said. “I wound up with 160 pages that would have cost $400 million and taken three years to film. We all had a good laugh at it, and then set about making things a little saner.”30 According to Di Novi, Burton was excited by Waters’ script. “He said, ‘Whether or not this is a Batman movie, I would make this movie,’” said Di Novi. “He felt that it was true enough to the real spirit of Batman, that it had a great story and that the Penguin and Catwoman characters excited him as much as Batman did.”31

  Waters was asked to write a second draft, then a third, and then a fourth. “It wasn’t a bad experience,” said Waters, “but it was definitely a brutal one. I was writing something that everybody had an opinion about. Everybody from the studio executives on down had read Batman comics and seen the first movie. Three times a day, I would hear things like, ‘Batman wouldn’t do that,’ or ‘Bruce Wayne wouldn’t use toothpaste.’ There was a constant battering involved in the writing of the script, and it got to be a bit much after a while.”32

  Although he had managed to flesh out the villains, Waters and Burton clashed over the writer’s depiction of Batman. “Most of my drafts painted Batman as a very burned-out, cynical person,” said Waters. “He kept asking himself why he always comes to the rescue of Gotham City, whose citizens are so gullible that they will always be taken in by criminals. In my drafts, when the Penguin begins his rise to power. Batman’s response was that Gotham City was getting exactly what it deserved. Tim and Michael [Keaton] both had a problem with the fact that I had made him too aware and openly reflective. They still saw him as a wounded soul and so, in the succeeding drafts, a lot of the cynicism disappeared.”33

  “I was taking a much more operatic approach to the material than Tim was after. Tim wanted changes made, and I was not doing them. After the fifth draft, I was burned out and very angry that certain changes were being asked for. So Tim finally felt it was easier to get another writer than to keep fighting with me about changes he wanted.”34

  With Waters exhausted of ideas, Burton reached out to Wesley Strick. The New York-born writer made his debut with the script for the legal thriller True Believers (1989), followed by a rewrite of Don Jakoby’s Arachnophobia (1990). In 1991, he was given the task of updating the classic 1962 thriller Cape Fear for director Martin Scorsese. By the time Strick turned in his August 1, 1991 draft of Batman Returns, the script was substantially what would end up on-screen. “Strick was basically brought in as the Terminator,” said Waters. “His was more a matter of maintenance—to throw out most of my wild dialogue and make things a little less severe. He basically lightened things up and brought the script out of the shadows. The changes were minor and it’s still essentially my script, so I guess I can’t complain too much.”35 Strick’s script introduced the political angle, with Shreck forcing a recall of the Mayor and an election. All thoughts of Shreck and the Penguin being related had been dropped, as had any mention of Robin.

  “At some point, there was a discussion of Robin,” said Burton, “and again, the only way I could see it was to try and find a profile that worked.” In their attempts to make the character modern and relevant, Burton, his writers and the studio had contemplated making Robin black; before the character was dropped from the script, Marlon Wayans was signed to play him.36 “What ended up happening was again, I think at the end of it all we just realized we had too many characters,” said Burton, “and you know, people even complained, even without Robin, they complained that maybe there was too many characters. And there was always the idea that the third or fourth, at this point, I think, Warners saw it as a potentially ongoing thing, maybe, and there was always that, ‘well, if we don’t do it in this one, we’ll do it in the next one’ kind of deal.”37 Burton wasn’t sorry to see the sidekick go. He told a newspaper journalist, “To me, there’s something about Batman where he is this lone figure, and I have trouble disrupting that psychology.”38

  The studio was clearly thinking of the Batman films as a potentially never- ending franchise. Consequently, they were anxious to wring every cent out of every installment with as many third-party merchandising arrangements as possible. From the moment he fully committed to Batman Returns, this focus on maximizing the marketing of the film put an added strain on Burton, who found that if toy manufacturers and other licensees were going to have their products coming out concurrently with the film, he’d have to take their development and production deadlines into account. Burton recalled, “Unlike the first one, before I started the second one, toy companies and t-shirt makers are asking, ‘Well, what’s this character going to look like?’And I was having these meetings where it was like, ‘We haven’t designed the character yet.’”39

  STARTING FROM SCRATCH

  Once Burton had a script ready, the next task was convincing Michael Keaton to reprise the title role. When the actor made the first Batman, there was no clause in his contract requiring him to appear in a sequel.40 One plus for the actor was the realization that he had already proven himself with the first film; this time around, he wouldn’t have to face the maelstrom of negative publicity that erupted over his casting in Batman. “Any problems I had with the fans on the first film are over,” said Keaton. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that I can play this guy. I’m so convinced of that fact that I have to admit that it would be pretty strange to see someone else playing Batman. I would be curious to see if somebody else could pull it off, and if he was really good. I would probably be very upset. It could happen, but I’m not going to worry about it... Playing Batman has definitely turned up the volume on my career four or five notches. Nobody could be more appreciative of the opportunities this role has given me. It’s nice to walk down the street and have kids get excited. I don’t have the anonymity that I had before Batman, but that came as no surprise. I knew I would lose that when I agreed to do these films.”41

  Tim Burton felt the lure for Keaton was much the same as it was for him,

  the chance to revisit the character with other actors in other situations. “I don’t think it was the joy of climbing back into the suit,” said Burton. By the spring of 1991, Keaton had agreed to come aboard, saying, “I like the story idea. I liked the idea of the two villains, and I loved the idea that Tim was going to do it again.”42 Keaton went into a rigorous training program to get into shape. As with the first film, he began working with British martial arts and kickboxing champion Dave Lea, who said, “Michael was an incredibly fast learner on the first Batman, and by now there isn’t much more I can teach him.”43

  Among those happy to see Keaton rep
rising the role was Bob Kane, who said, “Michael Keaton was good in the first one, and I’m sure he’ll be fine in this one, too. He fell into the role, and molded it to himself. As Tim Burton said, he wanted a guy who wasn’t a super-hunk; a guy who becomes a superhero. A super-hunk wouldn’t even have to wear the costume, but in it, Mr. Ordinary becomes Mr. Extraordinary. Burton thought the layman would recognize himself in the role—and it worked. Michael was cool as Bruce Wayne.”44

  With two villains in the piece, not to mention Max Shreck, the filmmakers had three major roles to fill. Burton and Di Novi immediately decided that there was only one choice to play the Penguin—Danny DeVito. “Danny was the first and only choice for that,” said Burton. “There was no question about it.”45

  DeVito, a native of Neptune, New Jersey, went from the American Academy of Dramatic Art to winning a role in an off-Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1971. Four years later, after appearing in a handful of small films, he reprised his role in the movie version of the play, produced by Michael Douglas and starring Jack Nicholson. However, it was his role as Louie DePalma, the volcanic taxi dispatcher in the TV sitcom Taxi (1978-1983) that made DeVito a household name. When the series ended, he embarked once again on a film career, with roles in two of the biggest hits of 1983, Romancing the Stone, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, and Terms of Endearment, with Shirley Maclaine and Jack Nicholson. After co-starring with Bette Midler in 1986’s Ruthless People, he made his feature directing debut with Throw Momma From the Train, in which he starred with Billy Crystal. Two years later, he reunited with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner for The War of the Roses, which he both appeared in and directed. With a penchant for dark comedy, the short-statured actor seemed not only the perfect choice but practically the only choice to play the Penguin. “I think everybody just automatically said Danny DeVito’s the Penguin,” said Denise Di Novi. “Who else is going to be the Penguin?”46

  Everyone was enthused about DeVito playing the Penguin except DeVito. Tim Burton went to meet with the actor/director to pitch him the role. “The last thing I wanted to hear from Tim,” said DeVito, “was that we were going to do the Penguin like the comic book or the TV show. We talked about the origins of the characters and what Tim had in mind visually and psychologically. It turned the corner for me within an hour.” Burton described his vision of the character to DeVito, saying “Imagine one night at the Cobblepot mansion. Mrs. Cobblepot is in labor. Two eyes, the nose, ears and mouth appear. Suddenly, this globular, unformed mass emerges. The Cobblepots are shocked and horrified. They hate it and they hate themselves. They take the infant

  in a stroller to the park and throw it into an icy stream.” This bleak vision of the classic character struck a chord with DeVito. He told Burton, “I’m in. I feel like I can start there. We can create the opera from that.” DeVito later told reporter Hal Lipper that he agreed to do the role before looking at the screenplay. “I came on this movie with Tim’s enthusiasm and his vision,” said DeVito.47 DeVito’s casting, along with Michael Keaton’s, was officially announced on the front page of Daily Variety on Monday, February 25, 1991.48

  Casting Catwoman proved more problematic. On April 19, 1991, Daily Variety reported that Burton and Di Novi had chosen Annette Bening, an actress who in the late 1980s had made the transition from TV to film roles.49 She gained critical acclaim for her performance as Merteuil in Valmont (1989), followed by showy roles in the films Postcards From the Edge (1990), The Grifters (1990), Guilty By Suspicion (1991) and Regarding Henry (1991). However, it was her romance with legendary Hollywood Lothario Warren Beatty during the filming of 1991’s Bugsy that made her ubiquitous in the tabloid press. The two had met when Bening auditioned for a role in a Beatty film years earlier and again when she auditioned for the part of Tess Trueheart in Dick Tracy (1990). After Bugsy, they were inseparable.

  Late in pre-production, after Bening had already been measured for her Catwoman suit, Burton received a phone call from the actress. “There was sort of this long pause on the phone and she said she was pregnant,” recalled Burton, “and I’ve never had such a split mixed feeling in my life. I was like very extremely happy for her and then was like dropping down a dark abyss at the same time.”50 With a six-month filming schedule looming, and considering the unforgiving tightness of the Catwoman suit, there was no way to shoot around Bening’s condition. She was let go.

  Overnight, a feeding frenzy erupted in Hollywood casting offices. Among the actresses contending for the role were Raquel Welch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ellen Barkin, Bridget Fonda, Cher, Lena Olin and Susan Sarandon.51 “It was kind of a crazy period,” said Denise Di Novi, “because I would say every single actress from 20 to 45 on the planet wanted to be Catwoman, and we were kind of barraged.”52 There was one actress in particular who felt she deserved the part—Sean Young. Young, after all, would have been in the first Batman, had it not been for a skittish horse; hell, they owed it to her to give her a second chance. And who better than she to play a beautiful but dangerous neurotic?

  After missing out on Batman, Young had costarred with Ted Danson in director Joel Schumacher’s Cousins (1989, a remake of a French sex comedy, Cousin Cousine), and with Matt Dillon in A Kiss Before Dying (1991). She had been cast as Tess Trueheart in Dick Tracy, but was replaced after seven days by Glenne Headley, reportedly because Young wasn’t “maternal” enough (she claimed it was because she spurned the advances of the film’s star, Warren Beatty). Now, to secure the role of Catwoman, the one-time ballet dancer was prepared to take extreme measures. “I thought that it would work to be sort of like aggressive in the sense that that’s what Catwoman would have done,” said Young. “She would’ve just gone Rrrrr and she would’ve gone in there and that’s just what I did. I did like a major kind of Catwoman adventure.”53

  Young fashioned her own Catwoman costume with black leather pants, black leather bustier, a short black cape and a black half-mask that covered her face but not her auburn hair. She then went to Warner Brothers’ Burbank lot.54 “She came to the studio and into my office,” said Burton. “I wasn’t there, but she had somebody out in the parking lot, a bodyguard or assistant, and when she saw somebody who looked like me she said, ‘There he is, grab him!’ I guess it was the publicist of the movie and it freaked him out. Then the people in my office told her it wasn’t me, and she stormed over to Mark Canton’s office, where Michael Keaton was.”55 Canton, then the executive vice-president of the Worldwide Motion Picture Production unit at Warner Bros., vividly recalled Sean Young’s assault on his office in an interview for the Batman Returns special edition DVD. “The next thing I knew, my office door flew open,” said Canton, “and Michael Keaton and I saw Sean Young dressed as Catwoman leap over my sofa and say, ‘I AM Catwoman!’ We looked at each other and went, ‘Whoa!’”56

  Young next made an appearance on the syndicated Joan Rivers Show, arriving onstage in full Catwoman outfit and making yet another public appeal for Burton, whom she called “Timmy,” to hire her. Ultimately, Young’s aggressive tactics backfired. Frightened rather than impressed with her performance, the producers determined that she definitely would NOT be playing Catwoman. On Friday, July 26—the day after Young’s Joan Rivers Show appearance—Warner Bros. issued a statement saying, “We had a particular vision in mind for the role of Catwoman, and we didn’t feel Sean Young was right for the part...We continue to have great respect for Sean Young’s talents as an actress.”57

  Nearly a year after the release of Batman Returns, Playboy magazine asked Young how she would spend one day if she knew she would be utterly and completely free of any personal consequences. “I’d fly directly to Tim Burton’s house and completely demolish it,” said Young. “Then I would rush over to Mark Canton’s office and hold him at gunpoint until (he) hid under the desk and begged for forgiveness. And then I would probably leave him tied up, hanging from the ceiling. Then I’d visit (Michael Keaton) and make him apologize for causing my horse
accident on the first Batman. Then I’d take Burton, Canton and (Keaton) and lock them up in a room and let them argue to figure out whose fault it was that they didn’t make the right decision regarding me in Batman Returns. Then I’d visit Warren Beatty. I’d strip him down, tie him spread-eagle to the bed and walk away. I would also visit Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Whoopi Goldberg, Geena Davis, Julia Roberts and Madonna, because I really like them. It would be to say hi and to show them I’m not a monster. Everybody’s convinced I’m a monster.”58 In May of 1992, Jay Carr reported in The Boston Globe that Young and writer/director John Paragon were making the rounds of the Hollywood studios seeking backing for a film based on the 1940s comic book character The Black Cat. Conceived as a Hollywood star who fought crime in a cat costume, the character bore more than a passing resemblance to Catwoman.59

  With the start of production looming, Michael Keaton suggested to Burton that perhaps Michelle Pfeiffer would be a good choice to play his feline nemesis.60 The willowy blonde beauty from Santa Ana, California began her career in TV in 1979 with a continuing role as “the Bombshell” in Delta House, a TV spin-off of the raunchy fraternity comedy film, Animal House (1978). The following year, she played Samantha “Sunshine” Jensen in the series B.A.D. Cats, about a team of cops who investigated car thefts. Small roles in films and TV movie appearances followed, until she garnered good notices for her role in 1982’s Grease 2. Her career then went into overdrive, with Pfeiffer earning critical acclaim for her performances in Scarface (1983), Ladyhawke (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Married to the Mob (1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Russia House (1990) and Frankie and Johnny (1991). Along the way, she’d been nominated for two Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe for The Fabulous Baker Boys. Luckily for Burton, Pfeiffer was available, and curious to hear more about the Catwoman role. “When Michelle Pfeiffer expressed an interest, something just clicked where we thought, you know, she’s perfect,” said Denise Di Novi.61