Billion Dollar Batman

by Bruce Scivally

  160 Ibid.

  161 Ibid., p. 36

  162 Ibid., p. 38

  163 Ibid.

  164 Ibid., p. 41

  165 Ibid., p. 42

  166 Ibid.

  167 Canavese, Peter, “Sir Michael Caine & Katie Holmes —Batman Begins—05/03/05,” GrouchoReviews.com, http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/94, accessed July 26, 2011

  168 Nazzaro, Joe, “Knight Haunts,” Starlog Magazine # 336, July 2005, p. 66

  169 Ibid., p. 66-67

  170 Canavese, Peter, “Christian Bale Interview,” Groucho Reviews, http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/47, Feb. 19, 2005, accessed July 24, 201

  171 —, Batman Begins International Production Notes, © 2005, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., p. 40

  172 Ibid.

  173 Ibid.

  174 Ibid., p. 42

  175 Ibid., p. 43

  176 Ibid., p. 37

  177 Ibid.

  178 Ibid., p. 39

  179 Ibid., p. 40

  180 Boyd, Betsy, “How Much is Too Much?” Daily Variety, July 27, 2005, p. A4

  181 —, Batman Begins International Production Notes, © 2005, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., p. 42

  182 Idelson, Karen, “Buzz Builders,” Daily Variety, July 13, 2005, p. A2

  183 Fritz, Ben, “Gaggle of Geeks Gabs at Confab,” Daily Variety, July 14, 2005, p. 13

  184 —, Batman Begins International Production Notes, © 2005, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., p. 23-24

  185 Ibid., p. 39

  186 Ibid., p. 24

  187 Ibid., p. 39

  188 —, “Cinematography the Analysis,” Daily Variety, Feb. 13, 2006, p. A17

  189 —, Batman Begins International Production Notes, © 2005, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., p. 25

  190 Ibid.

  191 Ibid.

  192 Ibid.

  193 Ibid., p. 24

  194 Ibid.

  195 Ibid., p. 25

  196 Canavese, Peter, “Christian Bale Interview,” Groucho Reviews, http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/47, Feb. 19, 2005, accessed July 24, 201

  197 —, Batman Begins International Production Notes, © 2005, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., p. 22

  198 Ibid., p. 26

  199 Canavese, Peter, “Christopher Nolan & Emma Thomas—Batman Begins—05/03/05,” GrouchoReviews.com, http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/94, accessed July 26, 2011

  200 Ibid.

  201 —, “Batman Begins International Production Notes,” © 2005, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., p. 43

  202 Cohen, David S. , “London’s Calling: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Batman Begins” Daily Variety, July 27, 2005, p. A2

  203 Boyd, Betsy, “How Much is Too Much?” Daily Variety, July 27, 2005, p. A1

  204 Knolle, Sharon, “Tune Titans Team Up For ‘Batman Begins,’” Daily Variety, July 17, 2006, p. A4

  205 Ibid.

  206 Ibid.

  207 Gritten, David, “Batman Now Speaks With a British Accent,” The New York Times, Dec. 19, 2004, p. 2.18

  208 Ibid.

  209 Ibid., p. C.1

  210 Ibid.

  211 Ibid.

  212 Ibid.

  213 Ibid.

  214 Ibid.

  215 McClintock, Pamela, “A Tull Order To Fill,” Weekly Variety, Nov. 21-27, 2005, p. 6

  216 Ibid.

  217 Gross, Daniel, “The New Deal,” Weekly Variety, Jan. 9, 2006, VLife Oscar Portfolio 2006, p. 73

  218 Ibid.

  219 Ibid.

  220 Snyder, Gabriel, “’Batman’ Arrives Earlier Than Expected,” Daily Variety, April 28, 2005, p. 2

  221 Snyder, Gabriel, “Dark Knight Takes Flight...” Daily Variety, June 15, 2005, p. 47

  222 Gustines, George Gene, “When Superman Meets Batman,” The New York Times, Apr. 20, 2005, p. E.2

  223 McClintock, Pamela, “WB Draws New DC Logo,” Daily Variety, May 10, 2005, p. 6

  224 Friedman, Wayne, “Dollars Go Digital: Emerging Platforms Like the Net Growing the Fastest,” Daily Variety, May 19, 2005, p. A1

  225 Ibid.

  226 Ibid.

  227 Ibid.

  228 Burton, Natasha, “MTV Lights ‘Dynamite,’” Daily Variety, June 7, 2005, p. 36

  229 Robertson, Campbell, Joe Brescia, Fiona Byrne and Jordana Lewis, “Boldface,” The New York Times, Jun. 8, 2005, p. B.2

  230 Romanelli, Alex, “The Bat Flies Right,” Daily Variety, June 9, 2005, p. 51

  231 Robertson, Campbell, Joe Brescia, Fiona Byrne and Jordana Lewis, “Boldface,” The New York Times, Jun. 8, 2005, p. B.2

  232 Romanelli, Alex, “The Bat Flies Right,” Daily Variety, June 9, 2005, p. 51

  233 Snyder, Gabriel, “Dark Knight Takes Flight...” Daily Variety, June 15, 2005, p. 1

  234 Morfoot, Addie, “It’s Same ‘Bat’ Time for Imax,” Daily Variety, March 3, 2005, p. 5

  235 McMary, Dave, “...And WB Hopes O’seas Auds Go Batty,” Daily Variety, June 15, 2005, p. 1

  236 Ibid., p. 47

  237 Snyder, Gabriel, “Dark Knight Takes Flight...” Daily Variety, June 15, 2005, p. 47

  238 Snyder, Gabriel & Dave McNary, “Crusade Begins: ‘Batman’ Tries to Reverse B.O. Trend,” Daily Variety, June 17, 2005, p. 1

  239 —, “The ‘Bat’ and the Beautiful: Comic Hero, Comely Couple Rule B.O.,” Daily Variety, June 20, 2005, p. 1

  240 Ibid., p. 24

  241 McNary, Dave, “...And Flex O’seas Muscle,” Daily Variety, June 20, 2005, p. 1

  242 Thomas, Archie, “Blighty Goes Batty,” Weekly Variety, June 20-26, 2005, p. 47

  243 McCarthy, Todd, “Batman Begins,” Daily Variety, June 6, 2005, p. 7

  244 Morgenstern, Joe, “Review/Film: Holy Melancholy, ‘Batman’! Tale of Superhero’s Origins Is Vivid, Stylish—and Dour; Solemnity May Fly With the Kids, Who’ll Mistake It for Profundity; Bale Plays Bruce Wayne, Glumly,” The Wall Street Journal, Jun. 17, 2005, p. W.1

  245 Travers, Peter, “Batman Begins,” Rolling Stone, June 15, 2005

  246 Turan, Kenneth, “Wholly rebound; ‘Batman Begins’ Honors the Dark Knight and Filmmaking Itself,” The Los Angeles Times, Jun. 14, 2005, pg. E.1

  247 Dargis, Manohla, “Dark was the Young Knight,” The New York Times, June 15, 2005, p. E.1.

  248 Dargis, Manohla, “The Best Films of the Year,” The New York Times, Dec 25, 2005, p. 2.7

  249 Christopher, James, “Batman Begins,” The London Times, June 16, 2005

  250 Bernstein, Viv, “Nascar Knows Logos Make Wheels Go ‘Round,” The New York Times, Jun 19, 2005, p. 8.8

  251 Frater, Patrick, “WB, Tom Click China Deal,” Daily Variety, June 22, 2005, p. 12 252 Snyder, Gabriel, “Brotherly Love: Revenge Pic Lures Femmes, Bags $21 Mil,” Daily Variety, Aug. 15, 2005, p. 40

  253 “Ledger Joins Bat Pack,” Daily Variety, Aug. 1, 2006, p. 16

  254 —, “Disc Drive,” Daily Variety, July 27, 2005, p. 5

  255 —, “A Blonde Comes Between Batman and Robin,” The New York Times, Nov. 1, 2005, p. E.2

  256 Repstad, Laura, “MTV’s Anything Goes Kudos,” Daily Variety, June 6, 2006, p. 54

  257 Leve, Ariel, “Britman: Gotham City’s Been Invaded—By a Mostly British Film Crew and Cast. Can the Director Christopher Nolan Inject Batman With the Fresh Blood He Needs?,” The London Times, May 29, 2005

  Chapter Twelve: A DARK DARK KNIGHT

  “The psychopathic clown, that’s an icon to stand with the guy with the ears and cape...it’s just a wonderful visual relationship, and it’s a terrifying image.”

  —Christopher Nolan1

  BACK AT BAT

  In 2002, Warner Bros. president Alan Horn promoted Jeff Robinov to president of production. After Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s exit from the studio, it seemed clear that Horn was grooming Robinov to succeed him. Robinov began making subtle changes in the way Warner Bros. did business. The “Warner way” had been to produce star-driven movies that were efficiently and effectively ma
rketed, while keeping stability in the executive offices. With that strategy, the studio—as of 2007—had sold over $1 billion in tickets at the domestic box-office annually for six years running, a remarkable achievement in Hollywood.2

  But Robinov recognized that the industry’s economics were changing, and the tastes of filmgoers were also evolving. He felt that the studio needed to make fewer films, but that more of those films needed to be big-budget blockbusters. And one way to achieve that was by making movies based on properties that already had brand recognition among the public, properties like the comic books of DC Comics. Consequently, Robinov pushed to integrate DC Comics into the movie division and produce more franchises based on DC characters.3

  Toward that end, the studio made a good choice selecting Christopher Nolan to take over the ailing Batman franchise. After breathing life back into the Caped Crusader, Nolan moved on to another project, The Prestige, featuring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Michael Caine. Based on a novel by Christopher Priest, the film was scripted by Jonathan “Jonah” Nolan, Christopher Nolan’s younger brother, who began as a writer by penning the short story Memento Mori, which became the basis for his brother’s film Memento.4

  About three months after the release of Batman Begins, while filming of The Prestige was underway, Christopher Nolan met with David Goyer to toss around ideas for a Batman sequel.5 “Chris called me up and said, ‘Hey, let’s have lunch,’ and I thought maybe he wants to talk about the second one,” said Goyer.6 “It was not a foregone conclusion that we were going to do a second film, and even when we started talking about a second film, then it was a long process where we talked about whether or not this story that we were coming up with was worthy or better than the first one.”7

  Nolan and Goyer decided that the next film would pick up about six months after the conclusion of Batman Begins. “I thought we left the world of Batman at an interesting place in the first film, and the end suggested an intriguing direction in which the story could continue,” said Nolan.8

  “At the end of the first movie we’ve got that little grace note between Gordon and Batman where we talk about escalation, and once we started talking about doing another film, it became clear that that was what the theme was going to be,” said Goyer. “The idea of the second movie, Batman is there, the public knows about him, so then it’s like, where are all the repercussions of that? Good and bad. That was the starting place for the story. How are the villains of Gotham going to react and how are the people going to react? It’s also the idea, which I really liked, of copycat Batmen. It just seemed like a natural thing that would come out of that.”9

  Since Batman’s character arc was the subject of the first film, Nolan and Goyer began thinking about which character the new film would center on, and they chose Harvey Dent, the crusading district attorney who eventually becomes the villain, Two-Face. “It became apparent as we were talking fairly quickly on that Harvey was actually the protagonist of the movie, that The Joker doesn’t change and Batman doesn’t really change, but Harvey is the one that changes as a result of his interaction between the Joker and Batman,” said Goyer. “And obviously he changes in a tragic way so that means the movie has to be a tragedy.”10

  Upon learning that the next film would feature the Joker and Two-Face, DC Comics sent the filmmakers every comic book story featuring the two characters.11 Goyer, already well-versed in Batmania, was inspired by a few stories in particular. Although there were touches of Frank Miller’s Batman, and some parts inspired by the comic book stories of Denny O’Neil, the biggest influence came from the graphic novel The Long Halloween, written by Jeph Loeb, a story that stretched over 13 comic books in 1996 and ‘97.12 The story has Batman working with D.A. Harvey Dent and Lt. James Gordon to try and find Holiday, a killer who murders a victim each month around a holiday. During the course of the story, Dent becomes Two-Face when acid is thrown in his face. The Joker features in the story, as does gangster Sal Maroni, and in one scene Batman and Gordon burn a pile of Mafia cash, a scene mirrored in the film but with the Joker doing the honors.

  Since Goyer was committed to direct The Invisible and produce Ghost Rider, and was also under contract to Warner Bros. to write and direct The Flash, it was apparent that all he would have time to do for the Batman sequel was help hash out the initial storyline. Christopher Nolan was not concerned; besides being a scriptwriter himself, his brother Jonathan had just proven his worth with The Prestige, so Nolan turned to him to work with Goyer in developing the story and then write the screenplay.13 “David and Chris went off and butted heads for a while and came up with a story,” said Jonathan Nolan, “and then they handed it over to me and let me take a crack at a first draft.”14

  Unlike Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), the Nolans didn’t see any reason to provide a backstory for the Joker. After all, when the villain made his first comic book appearance in 1940, he appeared fully formed, wreaking murderous havoc without any sort of explanatory origin. As Christopher Nolan pointed out, it’s the same as the shark in Jaws: “You don’t care where the shark came from, you don’t care who the shark’s parents were.”15 Jonathan Nolan agreed, saying, “My understanding of the character from the comic books, the aspect of him that appealed to me most, was the idea of the elemental bad guy. That opening shot of him standing on a corner—in my imagination he could have just appeared out of thin air.”16

  Christopher Nolan liked the idea of the Joker as a pure anarchist. “As the screenplay developed, we started to explore the effect one guy could have on an entire population—the ways in which he could upset the balance for people, the ways in which he could take their rules for living, their ethics, their beliefs, their humanity and turn them on themselves,” said the director. “You could say we’ve seen echoes of that in our own world, which has led me to believe that anarchy and chaos—even the threat of anarchy and chaos—are among the most frightening things society faces, especially in this day and age.”17

  Christopher Nolan wrote the final draft of the screenplay, streamlining it into a script ready for shooting. “Chris is always going to take the last pass on these scripts going in, he’s a writer as well as a director kind of 50/50,” said Jonathan Nolan, “so he’s always going to get in there and take that last crack at it.”18

  Nolan did some of the scriptwriting in Hong Kong, having traveled there in October of 2006 to get the right flavor of the Asian city for the scenes that were set there. As producer Charles Roven noted, “He likes to get out of town and be inspired.”19 The Hong Kong scenes added an international flavor to The Dark Knight, making it more like the James Bond films Nolan admired. The director included more 007 allusions in this script; besides Lucius Fox acting as a surrogate “Q” figure, providing Bruce Wayne with an array of gadgets (and even uttering a Q-like line, “Try reading the instruction manual first”), Batman uses a Skyhook to extract him and a Chinese businessman named Lau from a Hong Kong building. The Skyhook originally made its film debut at the climax of the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, lifting 007 and Domino out of a life raft before the closing credits. When Garth at the Dark Horizons website asked Nolan if he purposefully put 007 references into the film, Nolan responded, “We certainly did in both films. We started in Batman Begins, and I think the Bond films are a big influence tonally. In trying to explain to the studio, you know, if you look at the early Bond films you’ve got extraordinary things happening, but there’s an overall tone you can buy into as a regular action movie. You’re not completely stepping outside the bounds of reality.” Indeed, Nolan has admitted in interviews that he would love to direct a James Bond movie.20

  Not surprisingly, given the director’s involvement in the writing, the final script was practically identical to the eventual film that was made from it; there are no scenes in the script that do not appear in the film, and almost every line of dialogue is exactly the same, save for a few instances of what may have been actor-inspired improvisation. For instance, when Batman appears on the B
at-Pod, in the script the Joker says, “Guess it was him,” while in the final film, he says, “Now there’s a Batman!”

  There was no question of Warner Bros. greenlighting the film. The studio wanted a Batman sequel from the moment the first returns for Batman Begins came in. Having entrusted the franchise to Nolan, it was just a matter of waiting until he was ready to carry on. But while they were waiting, Robinov—anxious to exploit the DC Comics assets—set another Batman-related property into motion.

  THE JUSTICE LEAGUE

  Jeff Robinov had a vision. He was thinking bigger than a film that featured only Batman, bigger than a film that featured only Superman, bigger than a film that pitted Batman against Superman. What he envisioned was a film that teamed Batman and Superman with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter—a Justice League of America film, based on the popular superhero team-up that first appeared in the comic book The Brave and the Bold #28 (February/March 1960). The Justice League of America later spawned the animated cartoons Super Friends, which ran from 1973 to 1986, and Justice League Unlimited, which ran from 2001 to 2006.

  Daily Variety announced on February 23, 2007 that Warner Bros., searching for a new tentpole franchise, planned to bring The Justice League of America to the big screen, and had hired the husband-and-wife writing duo of Kieran and Michele Mulroney to write the script (Kieran Mulroney is the brother of actor Dermot Mulroney).21

  Announcing the hiring of the Mulroneys, Robinov said, “The Justice League of America has been a perennial favorite for generations of fans, and we believe their appeal to film audiences will be as strong and diverse as the characters themselves.”22 The Mulroneys turned in their first draft script in mid-June. Warner Bros. was enthusiastic about it, but worried that if the Justice League movie went forward, it would delay, and perhaps derail, the planned Superman Returns sequel.23 On the plus side, however, the studio thought a Justice League film might provide a launching pad for individual films of Wonder Woman and The Flash, the latter of which was already in development with David Goyer.