George Clooney strikes a pose in Batman & Robin. He was the first Batman actor since Robert Lowery to wear a Batman outfit that did not include a yellow and black bat insignia (Warner Bros./Photofest, © Warner Bros.).
Schwarzenegger’s deal was his most lucrative yet. He was reported to have earned over $20 million; some sources said his upfront deal was for as much as $25 million for six weeks’ work. His cut from merchandising would bring in even more. On products using his likeness, he would earn anywhere from 2.5% to 8% of Warner Bros.’ net; together with his salary, it was thought he could make as much as $35 million for playing the role.77 “With Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, we have a real action side to this movie so that Batman and Robin could do what they do in the comics,” said Schumacher.”78 Schwarzenegger attacked the role with gusto, saying, “Obviously, it was the last thing I ever thought of. But Joel and I had often talked about the possibility of working together, and it seemed to be an interesting opportunity. I studied the comic books that featured Mr. Freeze and also looked at the way he was played by Otto Preminger, George Sanders and Eli Wallach on the TV series. Then I had to figure out how to separate my Mr. Freeze from theirs, and how to make it memorable within the context of all the other terrific Batman villains. Because, you know, these movies are going to go on forever, and after people see Batman X, they’ll look back and talk about their favorite villains.”79
For the role of Bane, Schumacher chose 6’4”, 405-lb. wrestler Robert “Jeep” Swenson. The San Antonio, Texas native wrestled on the independent circuit under the names Jeep the Mercenary and Jeep Swenson, and on a WCW pay-per-view event as The Ultimate Final Solution. He had previously appeared on-screen in No Holds Barred, a 1989 film starring fellow wrestler Hulk Hogan, and as James Caan’s bodyguard in 1996’s Bulletproof. Swenson drew upon a literary inspiration for playing Bane, saying that the character’s relationship with Poison Ivy was “almost like the relationship between George and Lenny in Of Mice and Men, with the more diminutive person taking charge and telling the bigger one how to think.”80
Dr. Jason Woodtrue, Bane’s creator, was played by John Glover, an actor who had worked with Schumacher before on The Incredible Shrinking Woman. “Joel simply explained to me what Dr. Woodtrue was going to be in the film, and that he hoped I would consider doing it,” said Glover. “And when he told me that I would get kissed to death by Uma Thurman in the end...I thought, ‘Well, why not?’”81
Australian model Elle MacPherson, famous for appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine’s annual swimsuit issue a record six times, was chosen to play Julie Madison, Bruce Wayne’s fiancée. MacPherson made her film debut in Woody Allen’s Alice (1990), and won good notices for her role in the 1994 film Sirens, in which she played an artist’s model. Julie Madison, the character she played in Batman & Robin, first appeared in Detective Comics # 31 in December 1939, in the fifth Batman story published. Originally a socialite engaged to Bruce Wayne, she was shown to be an actress in Detective Comics #40, and made her last appearance nine issues later, after a studio head and a publicity agent changed her name to Portia Storme. Three decades later, she appeared in two issues of World’s Finest Comics (#248, December 1977/January 1978 and #253, October/November 1978) as Princess Portia, having married the king of Moldacia.
The doomed wife of Victor Fries was played by another fashion model, Vendala Kirsebom, an international spokeswoman for the United Nations’ Children’s Fund.82 Kirsebom, who was set to marry Norwegian businessman Olaf Thommessen in Stockholm on August 4, 1996, told Variety’s Army Archerd, “I’ll spend my honeymoon on the set of Batman & Robin as Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger.”83
Bob Kane’s wife, Elizabeth Sanders, reprised the role of Gossip Gertie from Batman Forever. “Gossip Gertie is a fun throwback to powerful 1940s gossip columnists like Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper,” said Kane. “And Elizabeth is adorable. She has presence that just pops out on the screen.”84 Super Bat-fan Senator Patrick Leahy made a cameo in a party scene, and Pat Hingle and Michael Gough reprised their roles as Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth. “I did not expect to get such a great cast,” said Schumacher. “You know, that’s very rare in the fourth of a film series. Things sometimes begin to wind down at this point, and I think having such an exciting group of actors stimulated us all.”85
FEEDING THE MONSTER
In February 1996, seven months before the start of principal photography, the creation of Gotham City began, in miniature. Some 26 miniature buildings, built on 1:24 scale and reaching as high as 25 feet, were constructed for Gotham City, all of them moveable to create different cityscapes for different sequences.86
Meanwhile, production designer Barbara Ling began creating the full-scale sets, which went up on the soundstages of Warner Bros. and at the Long Beach Seaport Dome. Ling created a Gotham City that was even bigger than the one seen in the previous film, still inspired by the Russian constructivists, but with a healthy dollop of art nouveau thrown in for good measure. “Gotham has always been for me a combination of everything we know, creating a world that feels familiar, but not enough to put your finger on,” said Ling. “It has a size proportion bigger than anything that actually exists, but within those proportions you recognize elements of other histories of architecture and other places. Gotham is a fusion of many cultures and periods of time, but it has no time element. It could be anywhere in time. It’s not the future. We’re not the past. It’s Gotham-time.”87
Ling’s set for the Gotham Museum of Natural History was inspired by her memories of childhood visits to the Field Museum in Chicago. “I felt like an ant in there, so I wanted to make the Gotham Museum much bigger than a real museum and went after creating a fusion of cultures for the exhibit on display in the great hall,” said Ling. “We invented something called ‘The Lost World of Tufa,’ which squishes together many world cultures from different eras of history—like 20-foot-tall statues of a sphinx body with a Tibetan head, or a Mayan head on top of a Mesopotamian body.”88 Ling worked closely with the stunt department, creating a space with enough expanse for the ice floes and ramps for the extreme skaters that would be employed in the sequence. “Being able to have Yarek Alfer and his sculpture department build the dinosaur statue was crucial,” said Ling, “because in any set as large as the museum, you need something to give it a sense of scale when you put a human next to it.”89 Standing roughly 60 feet high, 200 feet long, and 150 feet wide, the museum set took five months for the construction crew to build.90 Schumacher felt the expanse of the set was crucial to the action he intended to shoot there. “I really don’t like to place characters against white walls, and instead, you’ll see that I place them in the middle of large spaces, so they can move, and we can move with them,” said Schumacher. “Theater and choreography are very important for me in this way, and in Batman & Robin, I urged my stunt coordinator to use every inch of our big, beautiful space. Too often in movies with action in big spaces, most of the shots are in tight close-ups and two-shots. I don’t understand that.”91
Inspired by the use of color in the Batman comic books, Ling wanted lots of splashes of bright color in the film’s Gotham City. She faced a challenge, however, when it came to covering the sets in ice. “We wanted them to have some translucency, to take ice into a surreal place,” said Ling. “We probably did five months of research playing with every kind of toxic and non-toxic material known to man to come up with the right materials for the ice, before discovering a combination fiber resin. It took half a year to make the amount of ice we needed for this movie. The idea was to keep this twinkle about it, ice which feels cold but at the same time could explode because of this inner lighting that is always undulating. We didn’t want to just use white ice, and as far as I know, we’re the first to come up with this technique.”92
While the icy museum set was under construction, Ling tackled another big project: the Batcave. Since Batman’s lair had been destroyed by the Riddler in the previous film, Li
ng was able to recreate the set from the ground up for Batman & Robin. She was disappointed in how small the Batcave set appeared in Batman Forever, though she had tried to make it look immense. “This time, I was determined not to repeat my mistake,” said Ling. “The first element of the Batcave I designed was actually the turntable for the Batmobile and the Redbird, which I thought should reflect the Bat-Signal as an enhancement of that visual theme. Just as the Bat-Signal shines in the skies above Gotham, this would be the Bat-Signal deep beneath the surface. The Batmobile surfaces in the middle of this rising Bat-Signal. It became a perfect symbol to have the car positioned on the wings of the Batman emblem as it drives off. Then part of the emblem rises and creates a pod, which splits open and reveals a neon Robin emblem and the Redbird within. The Batmobile turntable in Batman Forever was about 20 feet, but to get the Bat Emblem formed on top of it for Batman & Robin, I needed to expand it to 50 feet.”93 Since Batman, Robin and Batgirl are seen in armored suits late in the film, Ling created an armored metal motif for the Batcave, creating arches in the cave that looked as though they were manufactured from metal. She also created a large Batman emblem that split apart to reveal a six-foot Bat Monitor behind Batman’s computer console.94 The set was built at the Long Beach Seaport Dome, utilizing a huge amount of steel and pipe superstructure. Once that was in place, thousands of plywood sheets were cut into ribs and cleats, assembled, and then shot with plaster. Rising fifty feet from the floor, the set required 100 laborers working on it for four months.95
The Long Beach Seaport Dome housed not only the Batcave set, but also two other massive sets: the Wayne Manor interior and Gotham Observatory.96 Unit production manager Barry Waldman remarked, “I remember thinking that we had six months until shooting started in September, which was more than enough time for prep. But in fact, we could have used another six months. There’s nothing small about Batman & Robin. This movie is a monster that has to be fed.”97
Besides the gargantuan sets, the new film gave Barbara Ling a second chance to design the Batmobile, as well as the other special vehicles required by the script. “Ultimately, I felt like the Batmobile in the last film looked just too small on camera,” said Ling. “This time I wanted its shape to be a giant version of some of the early roadster sports cars, like the Jaguar D types or the Delahane 165. I was also influenced by all of the Moon Company’s vehicles, including the Moon Spinner and the X Streamliner. I also wanted the Batmobile, this time, to be a convertible, which had always excited me about the early comic-book Batmobile.”98 Ling worked with Allen Pike and Charley Zurian’s TFX Company in North Hollywood to create the new Batwheels.99 Automotive illustrator Harald Belker, who once worked for Mercedes-Benz in Germany, aided with the design, which Ling wanted to reflect the shape of Batman’s cape. Instead of one flame shooting out the back, she wanted three on each of the two scalloped rear fins, and she designed it to have a single open cockpit, saying, “I think it’s much more handsome for the shots where you have Batman’s head right between the winged fenders.”100 Built from the ground up, the final car was almost 29 feet long on a custom-built chassis with racecar components, including a Chevy 380 engine that could reach a speed of 140 miles per hour.101 “I think it should always feel like half a block is coming at you when you see it approach,” said Ling, “and the size of the vehicle has to take on unnatural proportions for that to really happen.102
Since there was no seat for Robin in the Batmobile, he was given his own mode of transportation, a motorcycle called the Redbird. Like the Batmobile, Ling wanted the vehicle to be very long, so she again consulted with Harald Becker on the design. After about a dozen trials, they finally came up with one that was functional.103 Allen Pike built the Redbird with a single-cylinder, 650cc, four valves per head Rotax racing motor, which weighed 98 pounds and delivered 65 horsepower. Like the Batmobile, the bodywork was fabricated from fiberglass and carbon fiber, the same material used in airplanes. “We created a chassis developed out of components rather than a frame, with a side and front section,” said Pike. “That way, if anything breaks during the stunts, we can quickly repair the bike.”104 TFX made one “hero” Redbird for close shots, a stunt vehicle for jumping and wheelie scenes, and two “slider” bikes for sliding stunts and wire rigging.105
Three other Batvehicles were created for the climactic scene—the Bathammer for Batman, Batsled for Robin and Batblade for Batgirl.106 Based on the Batmobile, the Bathammer was a single-seat vehicle with a center pod, a turbine and a single wing off the back. The 20-foot-long vehicle was black underneath with a silver top outlined in neon.107 The Batsled was a two-seater combination of a hovercraft and a fan-driven Everglades vehicle, equipped with ice torpedoes, while the Batblade was a low-slung bike with dual fins coming off the back sides and ice-spiked tires, including a huge flat back tire that rode very low to the ground.108
Mr. Freeze also had his own unique mode of transportation, called the Freezemobile. “I loved the idea that for Mr. Freeze’s vehicle, you have to have something bigger than he is,” said Ling. “And when he’s in costume, Mr. Freeze is humongous.” The Freezemobile was first designed and articulated on TFX’s Alias computer, to see if it would work.109 A scale model was then built and the design refined. The data was digitized, put back into the computer, refined further, and then the final vehicle was cut full-size.110 Another custom fabrication built from the ground up, the Freezemobile was 26 feet long and nine feet high. It was constructed of plywood and foam, then covered with fiberglass. Foil and rivets were applied to give it a metal appearance.111 “It also required huge wheels,” said Ling, “so that it felt like a tractor or steam engine was coming right at you.”112
Before Charley Zurian and Allen Pike formed TFX, Zurian worked at the General Motors Concept Center, where he was partially responsible for the creation of the EV1 electric car. Like the EV1, the Freezemobile was a fully electric vehicle, capable of traveling up to 50 miles per hour.113 “One of the things that motivated us to use electric power is because torque is almost instantaneous,” said Zurian. “We knew that the Freezemobile was going to be utilized a great deal on soundstages where there isn’t a lot of room to get up speed. And because of its size, we knew that there was no way a gas-powered vehicle could handle that. In addition, there are so many safety concerns with heat and fuel that we elected to go with the electric motor.”114
Along with updating the sets and vehicles, new Bat costumes were designed for the film. Ingrid Ferrin, who had worked with Bob Ringwood on Batman Forever, and a new member of the team, Robert Turturice, set to work on updating the outfits, with input from production designer Barbara Ling and director Joel Schumacher.115 Batman’s costume was changed from black to a subtle blue-black,116 and made with a lighter foam so that it weighed only one-third of the 35-lb. Batman Forever Batsuit. “There’s a lot more flexibility and lightness, but the pay-off is that the foams don’t last as long,” said costume supervisor Don Bronson. “Another issue is that in the past we used black latex, but this time we’re actually painting all of the surfaces with the blue element, which has to hold up on a stretchable, movable surface. A lot of detail went into the prototyping and testing of the different paints to see how durable they would be.”117
A second, more advanced Batsuit was made for the film’s climax, with armored highlights on the torso, gauntlets, boots and cowl. Designed by Barbara Ling, it was sculpted by Jose Fernandez and Kent Jones. Complementary suits were made for Robin and Batgirl. At least 50 individual Batsuits of both the basic and armored versions were created, with many of them suffering significant wear and tear during the rigorous stunt scenes.118 The Batsuit was still uncomfortable for the actor inside it; asked by a foreign reporter during an international press junket about the most difficult stunts he performed, Clooney quipped, “Yesterday I had to raise my arms over my head while wearing the Batsuit. That was a traumatic experience.”119
Robin’s outfit was redesigned in the same blue/black material as Batman’
s, with the Nightwing emblem stretching from his chest and down his arms. Continuing on in the tradition of Batman Forever, both Batman’s outfits and Robin’s costumes had nipples and codpieces (Clooney joked that his codpiece was larger than the one worn by Val Kilmer), but Robin’s wardrobe, much to Chris O’Donnell’s relief, no longer featured an earring.120
Batgirl’s costume evolved in the early stages of the production. The first concepts featured a cowl; one design was a full cowl that covered her head and the upper half of her face, like Batman’s. Another design was more like a helmet that covered the upper half of her head and face but allowed her blonde hair to flow out beneath.121 Neither design was ultimately utilized, probably because they would have made Alicia Silverstone look too much like Catwoman in a cape.
To help differentiate Batgirl from Barbara Wilson, once the crime-fighter put on her mask, make-up artist Ve Neill added a beauty mark near her lips. Neill explained that the beauty mark was a tribute to a character played by Anne Francis in a 1960s TV series. “It kind of reminded me of Honey West, although there probably aren’t many people who remember who she was,” said Neill. “She was a favorite of mine as a little girl, and I just thought that a beauty mark was something really cute and sassy for Barbara to have that could set her apart from the rest of the girls.”122
Illustrator Mariano Diaz created the basic concept for Mr. Freeze’s armored suit, again with input from Ling, Schumacher and vehicle manufacturers TFX.123 The four “hero suits” made to be worn by Arnold Schwarzenegger were hand-pounded completely out of aluminum by armor designer Terry English, who a few years later became the armourer to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. The full suit was comprised of over 20 separate pieces and weighed about 45 pounds. Using one of the originals as a pattern, TFX made an additional fifteen suits, molding the pieces with aluminum zinc oxide.124 Still more suits were created from fiberglass and sprayed with metallic paint to match the originals. The Freeze Suit backpack served a practical purpose: it housed the batteries that powered the thousands of LEDs placed throughout the suit to give it its distinctive blue light; each of the suits contained 2,500 LEDs, with the complex electronics designed and maintained by TFX.125 “The costume limits you because you can only move so much under the heavy armor,” said Arnold Schwarzenegger. “You move differently, like a big truck moves differently than a Porsche. But a big truck can still move very fast.”126 Referring to an earlier Schwarzenegger role, Schumacher described Mr. Freeze as “The Terminator meets the refrigerator.” Playing the role tested Schwarzenegger’s physical endurance; the cryogenic suit he wore weighed fifty pounds.127
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