Catwoman: Details of Tim Burton’s Batman saga spin-off revealed

Catwoman: Details of Tim Burton’s Batman saga spin-off revealed – The Catwoman spin-off project was a peculiar process in which both Daniel Waters and Tim Burton had very different ideas.

By Megan Sauer

In a surprising revelation for fans of Batman Returns, details have been revealed about the Catwoman-focused spin-off that was in development after the success of Tim Burton ‘s dark Christmas masterpiece.

Daniel Waters, screenwriter of Batman Returns (1992), shared behind-the-scenes information about both films during a special screening in Los Angeles on December 22 at the Egyptian Theater.

The Catwoman spin-off

The Catwoman spin-off project, according to Waters, was a peculiar process in which both he and Burton had very different ideas.

While Burton wanted to make an intimate black-and-white drama with a budget of US$18 million, inspired by the iconic 1942 horror film The Mark of the Panther by Jacques Tourneur, Waters had a more satirical view of the superhero genre.

Her proposal included taking Selina Kyle to a “Gothamist” version of Los Angeles, where she would have to face three corrupt superheroes, an idea that Waters describes as a precursor to the series The Boys .

“I wanted to make a ‘Batman’ movie where the metaphor was about ‘Batman’. So I took it to a Los Angeles version of Gotham City, run by three douchebag superheroes. It was ‘The Boys’ before ‘The Boys.’ But he got tired of reading my script.”

Aside from details about the spin-off, Waters revealed that the original script for Batman Returns included several criticisms of the first Batman film directed by Burton in 1989, a film that, according to Waters, “stinks.

Initially, Batman Returns was going to start with the Batman logo and then reveal an official merchandise store within the film’s universe, with Batman making references to commercial exploitation.

However, Michael Keaton , the film’s lead actor, persuaded Waters to remove those criticisms from the final footage.

“Keaton said, ‘This is very clever. Take it away,'”

Waters recalled. Although Batman Returns is today considered one of the best films of the iconic DC superhero, at the time it was controversial among fans due to the creative freedom taken with the story and the characters, such as the new stories for Catwoman and The Penguin played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito , respectively.

Waters admitted that the alterations were due to a lack of research into Batman’s mythology. At the time, both he and Burton had limited knowledge of the characters and did not seek to be faithful to the original comics.

“It was a strange assignment where we didn’t need to please anyone but Tim Burton. Before the internet, we didn’t have to go into court and explain what we were doing; we were just two guys in a room improvising. ” Waters explained. “We didn’t really understand the whole world of comics. I just discovered that DC Comics stands for Detective Comics.”

The controversy among fans at the time, according to Waters, was due to Batman Returns being attacked by the hero’s followers, who thought: “This is only the second Batman movie, what the hell are they doing?

They’re already leaving.” Of the road”. Now, in a world with more than 50 Batman movies, Waters reflects, “Hey, that was pretty interesting.”