After Ben Affleck’s canceled Batman film, another project that failed to sell is coming to light. A regrettable abandonment as the feature film was promising on paper.
The DC universe in cinema is a bit like a roller coaster with ups and downs, successes and failures, and projects that haven’t even gone beyond the idea stage. And it affects all superheroes, even the most cult ones like Batman. Before Zack Snyder treated the character in his own way, before Nolan and even before Schumacher, Tim Burton should have continued the adventure. But the director’s very particular vision was ultimately short-circuited and spectators undoubtedly missed a nugget.
This Tim Burton Batman film that will forever remain a dream
After the fantastic Batman: The Challenge, Tim Burton could have returned for a spin-off on Catwoman, one of the stars of the second part. More than 30 years later, a person very close to the matter explained why this project ended up failing. According to Daniel Waters, screenwriter of Batman Returns, he and Burton were absolutely not on the same wavelength. Indeed, the director of Beetlejuice would have wanted something different, more artistic without trying to “go bigger” by producing a black and white film. A project that would be in the same genre as a very well-known French production.
He [Tim Burton] make an 18 million dollar black and white film, in the tradition of La Féline, where Selina Kyle would have had a discreet life in a small town. As for me, I wanted to make a Batman film that would have been a metaphor for the character. And for that, I wanted to have her move to a version of Gotham City inspired by Los Angeles, led by three rotten superheroes. It was The Boys before The Boys. It was drawn from just reading my script.
Via IndieWire.
Burton’s project therefore at least had the merit of thinking outside the box, but we will never see what it could have resulted in. Instead, audiences were rewarded with Schumacher’s Batman films and the Catwoman spin-off starring Halle Berry. Yes, life is ugly sometimes.
Other internal conflicts
During a recent screening of Batman: The Challenge in Hollywood, Daniel Waters also returned to the few criticisms from some DC fans for the liberties taken by the duo. “It was weird, because at the time, I only had to satisfy Tim Burton. Before the Internet, there was no need to go to court to explain what you were doing. We didn’t know anything about Batman’s villains. And we didn’t really understand what comics were. I just learned that DC Comics stands for Detective Comics. Fans attacked us saying, “It’s only the second feature film and it’s already gone?” “. Now that there are a lot of Batman movies, I think it was pretty interesting.”.
Even if it has been criticized, like other great films, Batman: The Challenge remains one of the favorite opuses of fans of the bat. And that’s partly thanks to Burton’s different approach.