"You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

BATMANIA- (Noun)

A mental disease causing one to constantly obsess over Batman, being Batman, or anything involved with the Batman mythos. 

In 1988 (great year, by the way) and 1989, America was engulfed in the nation’s second bout of Batmania, the first being in the late 60’s as a result of the wildly popular television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin.  The culprit, this time around, was the highly anticipated feature film simply titled Batman.  With Michael Keaton (Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice) donning the cowl and Tim Burton (also Beetlejuice) behind the camera, the film was poised to be one of the biggest movies of all time.  Filmmaker and comic book writer Kevin Smith remembers:

"That summer was huge. You couldn't turn around without seeing the Bat-Signal somewhere.  People were cutting it into their fucking heads.  It was just the summer of Batman and if you were a comic book fan it was pretty hot."

But things weren’t always so optimistic.

In the late 1970s, the plan was to produce a film titled Batman In Space, potentially seeing West and Ward returning to the roles of the Dynamic Duo.  However, before any work was done on the project, film producers Michael Uslan and Benjamin Melniker purchased the film rights to the Batman franchise from DC Comics.  With several script versions being turned down by major studios such as United Artists and Columbia Pictures, Uslan and Melniker’s darker, serious take on the Caped Crusader was without a home.  This was due to studios believing that audiences wanted something similar in style to the campiness of the 60s television series.

More script versions were written, including one by Uslan himself titled Return of the Batman, but still no one in Hollywood wished to take part.  That is, until Warner Bros. (who are, strangely enough, the parent company of DC Comics, but due to the film rights for the Batman franchise being sold in 1979, the Warners had no involvement until the early 80s) stepped in.  Several versions of the film began pre-production, but were axed for various reasons.  Originally, the film would be titled The Batman and would focus on the origins of Dick Grayson as Robin, with The Joker and a gangster with comic history named Rupert Thorne as the villains, and another comic character named Silver St. Cloud as Bruce Wayne’s love interest.  The intent was for unknown actors in the roles of Batman and Robin and established American actor William Holden James Gordon and British actor David Niven as Alfred Pennyworth.  Before filming began, both Holden and Niven passed away, leading to another halt in production.  The next major iteration of the film would see Bill Murray (KCCO) and Eddie Murphy (yes, that Eddie Murphy) as Batman and Robin, but for reasons of which I am not fully clear, this version never came to pass.

This was almost a thing.

Then 1985 happened.  Why is that year so important?  First, The Dark Knight Returns, a seminal work by Frank Miller, was released.  Depicting an aged Bruce Wayne coming out of retirement to once again become Batman, TDKR is regarded by many as the greatest Batman story of all time.  The second reason being that ’85 was the year Pee-wee's Big Adventure hit theatres.  Due to the success of that film, Warner Bros. hired Tim Burton, who at the time had only done that movie and was in preparing to film Beetlejuice.  Burton and his girlfriend at the time, Julie Hickson, wrote a film treatment inspired by the tone and feel of The Dark Knight Returns and the newly released comic, The Killing Joke.  Long time comic writer, Steve Englehart joined the project to help write a full script keeping most of the previous version intact: Robin’s origins, Joker/Thorne as villains, and Silver St. Cloud.  A subsequent rewrite omitted Robin entirely, with the thought process being that too many characters were present.  One final overhaul of the scripted happened, this time by a screenwriter named Sam Hamm.  Hamm’s contributions included changing the characters of Silver St. Cloud and Rupert Thorne to Vicki Vale (a mainstay in Batman comics) and Carl Grissom (an original creation, ultimately played by the amazingly talented Jack Palance in the film).  But Hamm’s main alteration was the idea of NOT showing Batman’s origin other than through flashbacks.  This concept, I love.  I cannot tell you how exhausted I am of origin stories in superhero films and television.

The comic that changed it all.

Burton and company patterned the casting of the Superman film when looking to cast the main roles in the film.  Top names like Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, and Tom Selleck were considered for the role of Batman and, on the “holy crap, they’d be perfect” list for The Joker were names like Tim Curry, Willem Dafoe, and David Bowie.  Ultimately, Burton’s casting of Michael Keaton led to a backlash among comic fans, which is uncharacteristic for that particular fan base (#SARCASM).  The role of The Joker went to Jack Nicholson.  With two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes, as well as a bevy of nominations, under his belt, Nicholson’s casting came at a cost.  Namely, a ridiculous contact that specified the number of hours he was entitled to have off each day, being off for Los Angeles Lakers home games, having all of his scenes shot in a three-week block (that one ended up not happening, as his shooting schedule lasted about 100 days), a $6 million salary as well as a large percentage of the box office gross.  To top it all off, Nicholson had top billing for the film.  In layman’s terms, that means that his name appeared before that of Keaton’s on all promotional material for the film including posters and home video box art.

"The movie is called Batman.  Who's name should go first, the guy playing BATMAN?  Nah...

Batman opened on June 23, 1989, grossing $43.6 million during its opening weekend, smashing the opening weekend record, set by Ghostbusters II just one week earlier, with $29.4 million.  Batman would eventually gross upwards of $411 million worldwide. 

A Duo of a different Dynamic.

There’s not a lot I don’t like about this movie, but there are several that I downright hate.  For example, Batman KILLS SEVERAL PEOPLE INCLUDING THE JOKER.  I’m not even going to explain why I hate that.

Commissioner Gordon is a dope.  Joker kills Batman’s parents (“small world syndrome” is lazy writing).  I’ve never been a big fan of the all black costume, however, I do like the Bat-symbol and its use in marketing.  Comic writer Grant Morrison brought the use of that particular symbol back about twenty years after the release of the film during his writing of a new comic series titled Batman, Incorporated, a series about the “franchising” of the Batman name:

“I was looking back at the old Tim Burton Batman movie in 1989, and the way they played that symbol, it was such a major merchandising tool.  So I wanted to do something that represented that, or echoed that.  So Batman, Inc. is the notion of Batman taking the symbol and saying, 'let's form an international army or team, or police force, which is endorsed by Batman and wears Batman's symbol.'”

Morrison and artist David Finch bring back the iconic black and yellow oval.

Among my favorite things about this movie are:

The Batmobile, designed by Anton Furst.

This shot of the Batwing, evoking the look of the Bat-symbol.

"He stole my balloons!"

The toys.  My God, the toys.

Bob the Goon doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves.  At least he got an action figure.

Prince.  And to a greater extent, Danny Elfman’s score.

Nothing says "This Batman movie was made in the 80s" like Prince on the soundtrack.

The two greatest things to come from this movie, in my opinion, are the fact that this movie led to the creation of not only a sequel, Batman Returns, but also the launch of Batman: The Animated Series, of which I’ve written at length.  Batmania began in the 60s.  It saw resurgence in the late 80s because of this movie.  And it’s alive and well today and has no sign of going away.  They hated the idea of Keaton, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Ben.

Thanks for reading!

-Josh

Sources: excerpts from primary source interviews; Wikipedia; Smodcast.com

Batman, related characters, and images in this blog are owned and trademarked by DC Comics, a division or Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.