The costumes and props for the film were deposited in Building 152, a two-storey aluminum-sided temperature-controlled warehouse with a reinforced steel door, at Warner Bros. In its cavernous, windowless interior, every costume for Batman, the Penguin and Catwoman was stored and protected by uniformed guards. Along with the costumes were back issues of the Gotham Globe, Gotham City phone books, stuffed penguins, blocks of fake ice and hundreds of wrapped presents.101
LIGHTS, CAMERA...ACTION!
Batman Returns began filming at Warner Bros. on September 3, 1991,102 with a budget estimated at $55 million.103 “That first day, I had what I would consider my normal case of nerves,” said Burton. “I’m always kind of nervous and hyper. The first day is never a breeze. But I do remember that it was great, after all the preparation, to finally get to that point. Once the actual filmmaking process began, Batman became the normal thing; everything outside of that movie became frightening and ridiculous.”104
Since she had never worked with the director before, Pfeiffer wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Burton. “I thought Tim was going to be stranger than he was,” she said. “He’s really pretty normal. The images he creates are mind-boggling, and he brings the most unusual fantasy elements to his films...Tim’s movies have an innocent darkness; that’s what most people respond to...He’s too provocative, too insightful to be adolescent. It’s profound the way 6-year-olds are profound—and honest, too. And he’s also that way as a person.”105
After two years away from the role, Michael Keaton arrived on set ready to explore new facets of both Batman’s and Bruce Wayne’s characters. “It’s Batman, but it’s also a completely different movie,” said Keaton. “I had to be careful that I wasn’t doing an imitation of Michael Keaton playing Batman and Bruce Wayne...I had to become those characters once again, without anything else getting in the way. Why am I playing Batman a second time? Well, I’ve never played the same character twice, which is a challenge, and it’s real interesting to take it further along. Also, Tim takes everyone on a fantastic voyage...and I’m totally with him on this quest.”106
“Batman has always been a tricky character because, by his nature, he wants to remain in the shadows,” said Tim Burton. “He’s a tough character because he’s so internalized. I got ragged on the first movie because Jack was so out there and Michael was laid back, but I didn’t see any other way of doing it and keeping true to the character. Character-wise, we’re not trying to up the ante with this film. We’re not trying to make Batman too cynical or too dark. We didn’t want to make him too dangerous or too aware, and Michael has been very clear on that. It took him a while to find that in his character in the first film, but he came in with it right away on Batman Returns. He’s just this character dealing with other characters, so he’s pretty close to where he was in Batman.”107
“In Batman Returns, I tried to be real distinct and sharpen some of the character’s edges,” said Keaton. “I was more comfortable being Batman this time, but a hair less comfortable being Bruce Wayne, just because I felt some scenes weren’t written as well as they should be. To be honest, I think the role is underwritten in the sequel, and I was partly responsible for that, by the way I was always taking lines and getting rid of them, especially in the Batman scenes, because I like the more Spartan approach to the character. I never wanted more to do in Batman Returns. I just wanted the film to be richer.”108
The first scene Keaton shot in his full Bat-regalia was a confrontation between Batman and one of the Red Triangle Gang. “I liked the first Batman scene we filmed, where Batman pops the bad guy, spins him around and does the thing with the bomb,” said Keaton. “Then, I turn and face the Penguin. It was a tough scene to choreograph because there was so much going on, and the timing and camera angles didn’t help things. But what I worked real hard on in that scene was presenting Batman as somebody with a real attitude and presence. I did it with the way he stood, the way he set his jaw and things like that.”109
Still, with his ex-girlfriend suited up as Catwoman and Danny DeVito in his Penguin make-up and outfit, it was sometimes an effort for Keaton to stay within the reality—or surreality—of the scene. “About every fifteenth day,” said Keaton, “that’s usually where it rolls around with me that I’m just kind of standing there waiting and I kind of look at what everybody’s wearing, and I look at myself, and it gets really tremendously absurd, you know, where you kind of step outside yourself and you realize, this is really nuts, what we’re doing. You just kind of laugh and say, well, here we go.”110
Michael Keaton's Dark Knight returns (Warner Bros./Photofest, © Warner Bros.).
Christopher Walken, outfitted with an array of stylish suits and coats and a wig that gave him a thick shock of eccentric white hair, employed a New York accent that caused some to see his portrayal of Shreck as a comment on a real-life New York tycoon, Donald Trump.111 “I’ve heard that,” said Walken. “Other people say that I speak like him. Well, we both come from Queens. It’s true in most movies I don’t use my own voice. I’m always from somewhere. Gotham City is really New York. I was born there. So I used my own voice.112 But Walken maintained that when he was preparing for the role, Donald Trump was not the person on whom he based Shreck. “I thought about the big show business moguls I read about,” said Walken. “Sol Hurok. Sam Goldwyn. Those guys who fought their way to the top. And then I thought of a lawyer I know. An older guy. Real tough. Real New York. Real smart. You wouldn’t want to cross this guy. I thought about him a lot in this part. He’s one of those guys—too mean to die.”’
Whatever trepidation former lovers Keaton and Pfeiffer may have had about working together was quickly dispelled when filming began. “I think it really helped because we both feel really comfortable with each other,” said Pfeiffer. “I trust him.”113 As reporter Hal Lipper wrote, “Keaton and Pfeiffer say they were close enough to play their roles intimately, though not intimate enough to interfere with their performances.”114
Pfeiffer’s scenes were scheduled in such a way that she often had breaks of more than a week between her scenes, which made it difficult for her to stay in the groove and develop her character. Whenever she felt she was losing her way, she would turn to Keaton. “I had him on this one to go to to say, ‘Listen, I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m not having fun here,’” said Pfeiffer.115 Keaton was happy to assist. “She’s so talented,” he said, “there was never any question in my mind that not only was she going to be really terrific in this but that she was going to figure out how to do this.”116
The scene where Selina Kyle is revived was one of the most memorable for Pfeiffer, who told reporter Joe Pollack, “The cat stuff probably was the worst. I have a cat named Tracy...I used to have another one named Spencer, but he died.” After completing the scene, Pfeiffer recalled, “I took a shower before I left the set, and I took a long bath when I got home, and Tracy still had a fit over all those strange cat odors.”117
“She was very impressive,” said Burton. “Two things that impressed me extremely was when the cats were kind of bringing her back to life, her sort of eye flutter and her eyes opening up. I still find that really chilling and amazing. And then that moment where she put a live bird in her mouth and held it there for several seconds and let it fly out. I mean, I don’t know too many people that would do that, and she did it several times. And no bird or person was injured.”118
Some of the most physically challenging scenes for the actress were the ones that involved Catwoman simultaneously trying to seduce Batman and destroy him on the rooftops of Gotham City. “Tim and I discussed the element of Selina Kyle coming into her own sexuality—the newness of that and the playfulness of that—and when it was manipulation and when it was sexuality,” said Pfeiffer.119 “The reason the fights between Batman and Catwoman work OK is due to this make-believe world,” said Keaton. “It’s such another world that the issue of a man fighting a woman isn’t really much of a problem. It’s well rat
ionalized, because Batman at first feels uncomfortable fighting her and she sucks him right in and sets him up and pops him. That’s a perfectly smart cat-like thing to do. Also, she’s drawn as a classic villain. She just happens to be a female. The interesting thing that comes out of the fighting is the obvious sexual tension between them. It’s compounded by this physical fighting element, which makes it hotter in a bad way. Some kind of sexual feeling, which isn’t affectionate, comes out of this direct physical contact. Batman is confused by it, but he sees elements in her personality that he understands. When you enter that area, it probably gets into some primal questions. I wouldn’t say the relationship is out-and- out S&M, but you are watching two people dressed up in black fighting each other and then making love.”120
Though the scene plays beautifully, capturing it on film was a chore for Tim Burton, who said, “The action scenes were like several trips to the dentist. We were faking everything, so it wasn’t like everything could happen quickly. The action process was very specific, so it went a little slower than I would have liked. Trying to create big action on a limited soundstage can be a drag...In that scene, we were dealing with complete fabrication. There was a lot going on and we were shooting things real tight. If we had moved the camera 1/16th of an inch up, you would have seen the studio ceiling. If we had moved it 1/16th of an inch down, you would have seen the floor. That was just the surface stuff.121
“Now, imagine Catwoman in four-inch high heels trying to kick the shit out of Batman while fighting on an upward-curving roof. But, I’ve got to hand it to Michelle. She took it upon herself to do all the weird stuff I had her do. In terms of selling the action scenes, she was so good, she was better than the stunt people.”122
Pushed by Burton to look at Catwoman as an external representation of mousy little Selina Kyle’s repressed sexuality, Pfeiffer found Catwoman to be ultimately a redeeming character. “It’s somehow a positive role model for women,” said Pfeiffer “I don’t think that women are gonna go out and start whipping people, but it’s an empowering character, and women need to be empowered.”123
The most fun scene for Pfeiffer was the one where Catwoman destroyed Shreck’s department store with her whip. “I guess I did feel powerful wielding that whip,” said Pfeiffer. “In fact it’s many things. It’s kind of sensual, and at times it’s very dance-like and at times it’s lethal...I can’t imagine Catwoman without a whip... It’s very—actually, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. It’s empowering, and at the same time it’s very graceful.”124 At the film’s press junket, Burton admitted that the whip added an overt kinkiness to Catwoman’s character. “She’s wearing black and she’s got a whip,” said Burton. “Beyond that it’s up to your filthy imaginations.”125 Filming the scene’s finale was not so much fun, however, for four stuntmen who were injured by a special effects explosion. In his Daily Variety column of October 10, 1991, Army Archerd wrote, “We were assured the injuries were minor.”126
Doubling for Pfeiffer in the more physically demanding scenes was stuntwoman Tricia Peters. Peters, who had spent seven years as a gymnastics teacher at the YMCA and worked out with circus acrobats on Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach on weekends, performed Selina Kyle’s fall from the high-rise window and Catwoman’s fall into the truck full of kitty litter. “I love high falls, but that was the first time I fell onto a moving target,” said Peters. “It made me a little nervous. We got to work it from lower points. By the time we filmed it, we went to a high point I had not fallen from. I’m not a real daredevil. I’m not a person who will try anything. I like to check everything out first. To make sure it’s going to be as safe as possible. But I do like the rush. It keeps you safe. A slight fear, the nervous jitters. It makes you much more alert and in tune with everything going on around you. You need that as well.”127
Once Danny DeVito had gone through his three-hour makeup transformation to become the Penguin, he remained in character on the set, much to the consternation of the cast and crew. “No one would talk to Danny on the set because he scared everybody,” said Burton. “I don’t know if that was his usual way of working, but there was a point where he just clicked into it and was completely this character who was totally antisocial, that had been out of the loop a little too long. Danny was one hundred percent into the transformation.”128 DeVito reveled in the part, saying, “I’ve never played anything like this before. This is from the bowels of I don’t know where. I’ve never explored this in my life.”129 The actor’s commitment to the role was so total that he even agreed to eat raw fish in one scene. “I always liked sushi, but this was really spectacular, raw and cold,” said DeVito.130
To keep an air of mystery about the character, a special conveyance was made to hide DeVito’s visage for his travels from the makeup department to the set. “We tried to keep it so that Oswald was not just exposed to everybody on the lot so they had this little thing,” said DeVito. “Tim made a canopy with the art department, that I’d travel to the set in this little kind of circus canopy. It was good because you could stay in character, you could just be Oswald. And everybody respected Oswald, they kept their distance, but they, the crew and the other members of the cast and everybody was really into it and they were really respectful.”131
DeVito had another special conveyance on-screen, when the Penguin uses one of his umbrellas as a personal helicopter to make a hasty exit. The flying effect was achieved without wires, using the same technique employed in the 1950s for the Adventures of Superman TV show. Chuck Gaspar, the film’s mechanical effects supervisor, first had to rig an umbrella so that the cloth would fly off in pieces—pulled off by wires—leaving the spokes of the frame to spin like a rotor, which required a hidden motor. DeVito stood on the umbrella’s handle, which was made of steel and affixed to a concealed harness connected to a bar that ran from his waist back through the barely-open doors of a church in the background of the set. As the actor was lifted aloft, his body hid the bar from view. “It was a levitation unit using counterweights for more control,” said Gaspar. “We just picked him up and the camera stayed with him so you never saw the bar.”132
Bob Kane occasionally stopped by the set. “Often in Hollywood, the creator is the last guy they want to see on the set,” he said. “They want to feel it’s theirs now, so they’ll do it their way. But by being a nice guy, not criticizing anyone, offering my services without being too combustible, I find you can join the team, and they will use your help when they need it. But if you go down and try to tell them what to do, they don’t like it at all. I don’t go out to the set every day, maybe once a month, so they’re glad to see me because I don’t overstay my welcome.”133 His wife, actress Elizabeth Sanders, was offered a small role. Originally, she was to play the woman who is rescued by Catwoman, then roughed up by the villainess. When it was felt that it would be better to have a stuntwoman in that role for insurance purposes, Sanders was put into another scene. “Now she’s in a scene in a mall,” said Kane. “The camera comes in for a close-up, and it’s very nice. She’s in a crowd of Gothamites, all talking about the Penguin, who’s now made out like he’s a benign humanitarian. There are a few comments before Elizabeth, and then she says, ‘ Oh, he’s just a frog, but he turns into a prince.’” After the scene was shot, Kane regretted that he hadn’t played the man who has the next line, “Nahh, he’s just a penguin.” Kane remarked, “I could have said that and been up there with my wife, but Tim said I didn’t ask him.”134
Filming mostly went off without a hitch. “At one point during filming, Tim was starting to look pretty damn healthy and focused and mature; like he had his finger on exactly what we were doing,” said Keaton. “That made me real nervous. I like him when he’s pale, thin and gaunt, hair all over the place and in need of washing, shirttails flying, and he’s pacing and looking lost. That’s the kind of Tim I want to work with.”135
For Denise Di Novi, the reason Burton seemed more inspired directing the second Batman film as compared to the fi
rst was obvious. “This is much more his movie,” said Di Novi. “Batman was pretty much a Peter Guber-Jon Peters film, and although Tim was very much the creative person behind that film, there was always the matter of their input and his ultimately having to answer to them. Batman Returns is definitely a Tim Burton movie...With this one, he’s much more able to do his thing.”136
Though the shoot was going well, Burton still had to deal with some sobering news about halfway through the schedule, when he learned that his close collaborator from the first Batman film, production designer Anton Furst, had committed suicide. The 47-year-old, who had been living in Los Angeles while trying to line up a film to direct, had been undergoing treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, and had just ended a romance with actress Beverly d’Angelo. At 4 PM on Sunday, November 24, just four days before Thanksgiving, Furst leapt from the eighth floor of a parking structure, and died from his injuries.
BATMAN RETURN$
In January of 1992, Warner Bros. unveiled their new Batman logo to publicize the upcoming release of Batman Returns. Instead of a winged bat, it was a silhouette of Batman’s head. Bob Kane saw the logo while driving past the studio, and he was decidedly unhappy with it. “Batman doesn’t have a flat head,” said Kane. “I was driving down the street, saw it, and went upstairs and told them it left a lot to be desired, and they agreed and said, ‘How can we improve it?’”137 In the end, it was decided to go back to the original Batman logo, now seen under drifting snow.
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