Development In the late 1970s, Batman's popularity was waning.
Richard Maibaum was approached to write a script with
Guy Hamilton to direct, but the two turned down the offer. Uslan was unsuccessful with
pitching Batman to various movie studios because they wanted the film to be similar to the
campy 1960s television series.
Columbia Pictures and
United Artists were among those to turn down the film. A disappointed Uslan then wrote a script titled
Return of the Batman to give the film industry a better idea of his vision for the film. Uslan later compared its dark tone to that of the successful four-part comic book
The Dark Knight Returns, which his script predated by six years. Melniker and Uslan became executive producers. The four felt it was best to pattern the film's development after that of
Superman (1978). Uslan, Melniker and Guber pitched
Batman to
Universal Pictures, but the studio turned it down. Though no movie studios were yet involved, the project was publicly announced with a budget of $15 million in July 1980 at the
Comic Art Convention in New York.
Warner Bros., the studio behind the successful
Superman film franchise, decided to also accept and produce
Batman.
Tom Mankiewicz completed a script titled
The Batman in June 1983, focusing on Batman and
Dick Grayson's origins, with the Joker and
Rupert Thorne as villains and
Silver St. Cloud as the romantic interest. Mankiewicz took inspiration from the
limited series Batman: Strange Apparitions, written by
Steve Englehart. Comic book artist
Marshall Rogers, who worked with Englehart on
Strange Apparitions, was hired for
concept art.
Sam Raimi wanted to direct, but was unable to get the rights. After the financial success of ''
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Warner Bros. hired Tim Burton to direct Batman
. Burton had then-girlfriend Julie Hickson write a new 30-page film treatment, feeling the previous script by Mankiewicz was campy. The success of The Dark Knight Returns
and the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke'' rekindled Warner Bros.' interest in a film adaptation. Burton was initially not a comic book fan, but he was impressed by the dark and serious tone found in both
The Dark Knight Returns and
The Killing Joke. Like Mankiewicz's script, it was based on his own
Strange Apparitions and included Silver St. Cloud, Dick Grayson, the Joker, and Rupert Thorne, as well as a
cameo appearance by
the Penguin. Warner Bros. was impressed, but Englehart felt there were too many characters. He removed the Penguin and Dick Grayson in his second treatment, finishing in May 1986. Hamm replaced Silver St. Cloud with Vicki Vale and Rupert Thorne with his own creation, Carl Grissom. He completed his script in October 1986, which demoted Dick Grayson to a cameo rather than a supporting character. Warner Bros. was less willing to move forward on development, despite their enthusiasm for Hamm's script, which Kane greeted with positive feedback. Hamm explained, "They hear Tim Burton's name and they think of ''Pee-wee's Big Adventure''. They hear Keaton's name, and they think of any number of Michael Keaton comedies. You think of the 1960s version of
Batman, and it was the complete opposite of our film. We tried to market it with a typical dark and serious tone, but the fans didn't believe us."
Casting as Batman and
Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the film's climactic confrontation Parallel to the
Superman casting, a variety of
Hollywood A-listers were considered for the role of Batman, including
Mel Gibson,
Michael Biehn,
Steven Seagal,
Kevin Costner,
Charlie Sheen,
Tom Selleck, Bill Murray, Burton was pressured by Warner Bros. to cast an obvious action movie star, Gibson turned down the role in favor of
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989). Burton was originally interested in casting an unknown actor, Producer Jon Peters suggested Michael Keaton, arguing he had the right "edgy, tormented quality" after having seen his dramatic performance in
Clean and Sober (1988). Having directed Keaton in
Beetlejuice, Burton agreed. Kane, Hamm, and Uslan also heavily questioned the casting. Keaton studied
The Dark Knight Returns for inspiration.
Tim Curry,
David Bowie,
John Lithgow,
Brad Dourif,
Ray Liotta, and
James Woods were all considered for the Joker. Lithgow, during his audition, attempted to talk Burton out of casting him, a decision he would later publicly regret, stating, "I didn't realize it was such a big deal." Burton wanted to cast
John Glover, but the studio insisted on using a movie star.
Robin Williams lobbied hard for the part. Nicholson demanded that all of his scenes be shot in a three-week block, but the schedule lapsed into 106 days.—biographer Marc Eliot reports that Nicholson may have received as much as $90 million. He also demanded top
billing on promotional materials.
Sean Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale, but was injured in a horse-riding accident prior to commencement of filming. Young's departure necessitated an urgent search for an actress who, besides being right for the part, could commit to the film at very short notice. Peters suggested
Kim Basinger: she was able to join the production immediately and was cast. Reporter Alexander Knox was portrayed by
Robert Wuhl. In the original script, Knox was killed by the Joker's poison gas during the climax, but the filmmakers "liked [my] character so much," Wuhl said, "that they decided to let me live." Burton chose
Billy Dee Williams as
Harvey Dent because he wanted to include the villain
Two-Face in a future film using the concept of an African-American Two-Face for the black and white concept, but
Tommy Lee Jones was later cast in the role for
Batman Forever (1995), which disappointed Williams. Irish child actor Ricky Addison Reed was cast as Dick Grayson before the character was removed by Warren Skarren for the revised shooting script. The rest of the cast included
Pat Hingle as
Commissioner Gordon,
Jerry Hall as Alicia,
Lee Wallace as Mayor Borg,
William Hootkins as Lt. Eckhardt, and
Jack Palance as crime boss Carl Grissom.
Design Burton had been impressed with the design of
Neil Jordan's
The Company of Wolves (1984), but was unable to hire its production designer
Anton Furst for
Beetlejuice Furst continued, "[W]e imagined what New York City might have become without a
planning commission. A city run by crime, with a riot of architectural styles. An essay in ugliness. As if hell erupted through the pavement and kept on going". The 1985 film
Brazil by
Terry Gilliam was also a notable influence upon the film's production design, as both Burton and Furst studied it as a reference. adding two
Browning machine guns. On designing the Batmobile, Furst explained, "We looked at jet aircraft components, we looked at war machines, we looked at all sorts of things. In the end, we went into pure expressionism, taking the
Salt Flat Racers of the 30s and the
Sting Ray macho machines of the 50s". The car was built upon a
Chevrolet Impala when previous development with a
Jaguar and
Ford Mustang failed.
Costume designer
Bob Ringwood turned down the chance to work on
Licence to Kill (1989) in favor of
Batman. Ringwood found it difficult designing the
Batsuit because "the image of Batman in the comics is this huge, big six-foot-four hunk with a dimpled chin. Michael Keaton is a guy with average build", he stated. "The problem was to make somebody who was average-sized and ordinary-looking into this bigger-than-life creature." Burton commented, "Michael is a bit
claustrophobic, which made it worse for him. The costume put him in a dark, Batman-like mood though, so he was able to use it to his advantage". Ringwood studied over 200 comic book issues for inspiration. 28 sculpted latex designs were created; 25 different cape looks and 6 different heads were made, accumulating a total cost of $250,000. Comic book fans initially expressed negative feedback against the Batsuit.
Filming The filmmakers considered filming
Batman entirely on the
Warner Bros. backlot in
Burbank, California, but media interest in the film made them change the location. It was shot at
Pinewood Studios in
England from October 10, 1988, to February 14, 1989, with 80 days of main shooting and 86 days of second unit shooting. 18
sound stages were used, with seven stages occupied, including the 51 acre backlot for the Gotham City set, one of the biggest ever built at the studio. For the production at Acton Lane Power Station, the power plant and alien nest sets from
Aliens (1986) were reused as interiors for Axis Chemicals. The original production budget escalated from $30 million to $48 million. With various problems during filming, Burton called it "Torture. The worst period of my life!" Only Skaaren received screenplay credit with Hamm. Hamm criticized the rewrites, but blamed the changes on Warner Bros. Originally in the climax, the Joker was meant to kill Vicki Vale, sending Batman into a vengeful fury. Jon Peters reworked the climax without telling Burton and commissioned production designer Anton Furst to create a model of the cathedral.
Music Burton hired
Danny Elfman of
Oingo Boingo, his collaborator on ''Pee-wee's Big Adventure
and Beetlejuice
, to compose the music score. For inspiration, Elfman was given The Dark Knight Returns''. Elfman was worried, as he had never worked on a production this large in budget and scale. In addition, producer Jon Peters was skeptical of hiring Elfman, but was later convinced when he heard the opening number. Burton protested the ideas, citing "my movies aren't commercial like
Top Gun." Elfman was later displeased with the
audio mixing of his film score. "
Batman was done in England by technicians who didn't care, and the non-caring showed," he stated. "I'm not putting down England because they've done gorgeous
dubs there, but this particular crew elected not to."
Batman was one of the first films to spawn two soundtracks. One of them featured songs written by Prince while the other showcased Elfman's score. Both were successful, and compilations of Elfman's
opening credits were used in the
title sequence theme for
Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), also composed by Walker. ==Themes==