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All The Right Movies

@ATRightMovies

Jun 19, 2023 • 41 tweets • 24 min read • Read on X

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BATMAN RETURNS was released 31 years ago today. Tim Burton’s follow up to his 1989 original, the film gave us some of the most memorable Batman moments ever put on screen. The making of story is as crazy as the film…

A THREAD

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After Batman was a huge hit in 1989, Warner Bros wanted a sequel. Neither Tim Burton had been signed up for one. Burton agreed to return if he had final sign off on the script, and Keaton only for a hike in salary from a reported $6m to $11m.

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The script was written by Sam Hamm, returning from Batman. It was a direct follow up to Batman and had The Penguin and Catwoman going after hidden treasure. Burton didn’t want to do a direct sequel so it was re-written. The Penguin and Catwoman stayed, though.

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Burton brought in Heathers’ writer Daniel Waters. He brought in Max Shreck and introduced origin stories for The Penguin and Catwoman.

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Burton still wasn’t totally happy so brought in Arachnophobia and Cape Fear writer Wesley Strick. Strick pitched an idea inspired by Moses: the infant Oswald Cobblepot is found in a river in a basket, raised by penguins and has a plan to kill Gotham’s first born sons.

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Burton’s original plan was for Robin to be introduced. He hired comics artists Norm Breyfogle and Neal Adams to design the costume and Marlon Wayans was in talks to play the Boy Wonder.

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It was also planned that Harvey Dent/Two-Face would be in the film, played by Billy Dee Wiliams, who played him in the first film. His disfiguring would occur in the finale after Catwoman kisses him with a taser to his face, which is what happens to Max Shreck.

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Daniel Waters said that when Michael Keaton reviewed the script he asked for a lot of his dialogue to be cut. Unusual for an actor to want less dialogue, but when Waters saw the film he said “I realised he was exactly right.”

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Several changes were made to the batsuit from the first film. The colour scheme and chestplate logo changed and, at Keaton’s request it was made more flexible and a zipper was added to the pants!

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In casting Catwoman, Burton wanted a star. He considered Meryl Streep, Cher and Demi Moore before casting Anette Bening.

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However, after losing the role of Vicki Vale to Kim Basinger in the first film, Sean Young was determined to get the role of Catwoman. She campaigned for the part, even going on the Joan Rivers Show dressed in full Catwoman outfit.

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Before production started, Bening was forced to drop out when she became pregnant. Burton turned to Michelle Pfeiffer, and the studio agreed to pay her three times what Bening would’ve been paid.

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Pfeiffer threw herself into the role. She worked on lowing the register of her voice, trained in the gym for 6 months, and learned how to handle a 12-foot bullwhip for real. As seen below, Pfeiffer whipped off the mannequin heads for real, and in one take.

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Pfeiffer went through 60 catsuits during the 6 month shoot at a cost of $1000 each. The costume was so tight that Pfeiffer had to be vacuum-sealed into it. And she could only wear it for a short time or she would pass out.

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WB had to constantly send out new Catwoman posters as most of the bus stop ads were being stolen. It got so bad that police officers had to patrol bus stops. The large scale Catwoman ads now regularly sell on eBay for a lot of money.

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Filming the scene where Catwoman puts The Penguin’s bird in her mouth, they used a puppet. Pfeiffer said it looked fake though so suggested doing it for real, which she did. (She was very careful not to harm the bird and made sure it was okay afterwards).

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According to reports, Dustin Hoffman was offered the role of The Penguin but declined. Other actors were considered, including Dudley Moore, Bob Hoskins and, bizarrely, Rowan Atkinson.

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Waters has said he wrote the part of The Penguin for Danny DeVito, even though DeVito hadn’t been cast officially. He said he “kind of knew” DeVito would get the part, as on a short list of actors who could play “short and nasty” De Vito was the standout.

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Stan Winston designed the look of The Penguin. He said "The concept was just a pointy nose, but I wasn't happy with that. Years ago, for The Wiz, I had created crow characters with enormous beak faces. I felt that I could use a similar concept for the Penguin."

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It took 3 hours to apply the Penguin make up every morning. De Vito was forbidden to describe the Penguin’s look to anyone, even his family.

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Despite the security, photos of The Penguin were leaked in magazines. WB hired a team of private investigators to find the culprit. They also instructed the art department to keep their blinds permanently pulled down and denied Kevin Costner a request to visit the set.

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Terrifyingly, Danny De Vito stayed in character on the set between takes. Filming the scene below took many takes because De Vito’s appearance terrified the monkey and the monkey bit him in the crotch.

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Burgess Meredith, who played the Penguin in the 1960s TV series was asked to play the Penguin's father in the opening of the film, but illness prevented him from it.

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David Bowie had been considered to play the Joker in Batman and was Burton’s pick to play Max Shreck. turned down the role though, so he could appear in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

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Casting director Marion Dougherty recommended Christopher Walken to Tim Burton as a possible Max Shreck. Burton was unsure and when she asked him why he said "Because that man scares the hell out of me."

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There’s a notable cameo too. The woman in the below scene who says "He's like a frog that became a prince" is Elizabeth Sanders: The wife of Batman co-creator Bob Kane.

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Danny Elfman returned as composer from the first film. He has a cameo as one of the protestors who pelts the Penguin during his speech. Filming this scene, De Vito insisted they throw real rotten lettuce, cabbage and tomatoes at him.

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Burton had Gotham redesigned from the first film and over half the WB lot was taken up with massive Gotham City sets. They were often shifted between days of filming. Michelle Pfeiffer often got lost on her way in each day.

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The set for the Penguin's underground lair, at the abandoned Gotham City Zoo, was also enormous. It was filled with 500,000 gallons of water and a simulated ice floe island.

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Some simple tricks were used too. To get the cats to surround Selina when she's pushed from the window, the effects team put tuna on Michelle Pfeifer and a dummy version of Selina.

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There are numerous references to Germany's Weimar Republic. The look of the Penguin was inspired by The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Max Shreck was named after the Nosferatu star. And Schreck suggests to the Penguin to make a "Reichstag fire", a Nazi terrorist act.

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The Penguin's army consisted of real penguins, actors in glass fiber suits, robotic puppets, and CGI animation. The animal handlers used a technique called flocking, where puppet would act as master penguin and the live penguins would imitate it.

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Burton wanted to use real penguins where possible and they had 12 King Penguins and 30 African penguins. They had their own refrigerated trailer and swimming pool. And they had 24-hour bodyguards. Most of them mated and produced eggs, a sign of a happy penguin.

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Animal rights protesters were not happy when they found out Burton was strapping rockets to the backs of penguins. As such, an independent investigation team was sent to the set to ensure the penguins were not being mistreated.

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Stan Winston’s team created the mechanical penguins. He tells a story about how his crew were collecting the penguins after a day's shoot, and found one of the live penguins snuggled up asleep against a mechanical one.

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Originally, Catwoman died in the explosion but WB decided she should survive in case they wanted to use her again. So they changed the ending, below. A body double was used because Pfeiffer wasn't available. The shot ended up costing a quarter of a million dollars.

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The film released and took $45.69m in its opening weekend, the highest opener ever. On a budget of approx. $60m it grossed $266m so was a big success.

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Reviewers and critics complained about the darkness. McDonald’s scrapped its Happy Meal tie-in after floods of complaints from parents about the film’s tone. As a result, Burton was dropped as director and he was replaced with Joel Schumacher for Batman Forever.

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Over time, though, the film has grown in stature to become one of the most popular Batman films. To finish, the great scene where Batman first comes across Catwoman…

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