Did you know that Robin Williams almost played one of Batman’s greatest enemies on the big screen? Find out here what bad-guy it is!
Released in theaters in 1995, the feature film Batman Forever sees actor Jim Carrey slip into the guise of The Riddler, one of the Batman’s most notorious foes. But did you know that another big name in US comedy almost played bad-guy DC in Joel Schumacher’s film?
In an interview with The Playlist websitescreenwriter Akiva Goldsman reveals that it was Robin Williams who was originally to interpret this iconic villain. “I remember that extraordinary day when Joel Schumacher sent me to San Francisco to meet Robin”he says. “I spent the day in his kitchen with him who kept telling me about the character.”
We will probably never know what Robin Williams said about the character of The Riddler (also played by Paul Dano in The Batman) but listening to Akiva Goldsman, we can’t help but fantasize. “It was more than genius”he blurts out. “It’s as if he opened his head and I saw a universe unfolding. It was so beautiful. When I got home, Robin had left a message on my answering machine, my girlfriend kept calling play it over and over.”
Why did Robin Williams, who also came very close to playing in the Harry Potter saga, not finally face Batman? “In fact, Joel and Robin never got to meet for real”says Goldsman. “Jim Carrey arrived, he was incredible. And then Tommy Lee Joneswho had worked with Joel on The customer, also joined the project. Everything fell into place naturally. And the result was fun, funny, extraordinary.”
Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer as the superhero, has grossed over $336 million worldwide.
Ouf voice – Emmanuel Curtil – Meeting with the VF voice of Jim Carrey and Chandler from “Friends”: