There are many stories in Hollywood of potentially great superhero movies that never got made, and now we have yet another one to add to that list.GremlinsdirectorJoe Dante, as it turns out, had been approached prior toTim Burtonto direct aBatmanmovie for Warner Bros. Not only that, but he revealed that he had plans to makeJohn LithgowThe Joker in what would have been his version.
Joe Danterecently talked a bit about the project in an interview withPsychotronic Cinema. The screenplay for thisBatmanmovie that never was would have been based on a screenplay written byTom Mankiewicz, who wrote theRoger MooreBond movieLive and Let Die. In terms of tone, the movie would have been darker than the 1960sBatmanTV series, but not as gritty as theChristopher Nolan movies. Here is what the director had to say about it.
“It started with his parents being killed, and it was a revenge story. But it was very outlandish, had a lot of giant props in it. The Joker was a major character in it. I wanted to hire John Lithgow for that part because I had met him on The Twilight Zone movie. And for whatever reason, I started to gravitate more towardsThe Jokerthan towards Batman. And I actually woke up one night and I said to myself, “I can’t do this movie-I’m more interested in The Joker than I am in Batman, and that’s not the way it should be.” So I went and told them that I couldn’t do it, and they looked at me like I’d completely lost my mind.”
It is not at all surprising that we would have seenBruce Wayne’s parentsget killed, as we are constantly reminded of this in pretty much every version ofBatmanthat is brought to any medium. It is interesting thatJoe Danteexplains that his reasoning for not wanting to do the movie had to do with his fixation on the character of The Joker. In bothTim Burton’sBatmanandChristopher Nolan’sThe Dark Knight, The Joker very nearly overshadows the title character, especially in the case ofThe Dark Knight, which featuredHeath Ledger’s unforgettable performance. Not to mention thatJohn Lithgowis one of the finest character actors we have, so the idea of him taking on that role in his prime is no doubt something many of us would love to see, were we able to take a trip to the alternate universe that movie exists in. The director did say in the interview that he ultimately doesn’t regret passing on the opportunity.
“I don’t regret not doing Batman, in the sense that I’m not sure what it would have ended up being like. But I certainly can’t say it was a major career-booster, my decision not to make it.”
In the end, it wasTim Burtonwho wound up makingBatmanandJack Nicholsonwho wound up playing The Joker. By pretty much all accounts, that turned out to be a very good way to go with it. The movie went on to gross $411 million on a $35 million budget back in 1989. Even unadjusted for inflation, that is very impressive. Not only that, but the movie spawned a sequel fromBurton,Batman Returns, and twoJoel Schumachermovies,Batman Returnsand the much-malignedBatman & Robin, that took place in the same continuity.
The failure of the latter is what eventually led toChristopher Nolan’s dramatically different take withBatman Begins. While most of us wouldn’t want to alter the path that brought usThe Dark Knighttrilogy, there is no doubtJoe Dante’sBatmanwould have been interesting. But much like theNicolas CagemovieSuperman LivesorGeorge Miller’sJustice League, this is something we will simply have to wonder about.
