Rare is the day where the anniversary of a movie that we like is not celebrated but the premiere of ‘Flash’, where he returns michael keaton like Bruce Wayne, makes the 31 years of ‘Batman Returns’ (‘Batman Returns’) becomes a special date for all fans of the fantastic genre and superhero cinema.
Premiered on June 19, 1992this sequel to ‘Batman’ (1989) directed by Tim Burton had the challenge of making us forget Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and he did it with two new and striking villains: Catwoman from Michelle Pfeiffer and the penguin Danny DeVito. As usual in Burton’s films, the rhythm fails and the action is somewhat clumsy but you feel that the director has transported you to a gloomy world, he transfers his love for these “monsters”, and you remain glued to wonderful scenes that remain recorded forever… It’s not a round film but certainly it’s a joy meet her again.
To commemorate its 25th anniversary, the Hollywood Reporter brought together the stars and the director of ‘Batman Returns’, along with the musician Danny Elfmann and the scriptwriter Daniel Waters, to remember anecdotes from the shooting. Below I have selected the highlights of his statements, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Pfeiffer put a live bird in his mouth
Tim Burton: “I don’t think I’ve ever been so impressed. She had a live bird in her mouth while the camera was rolling. It was for four or five seconds, and then he let it fly. It was before CGI, before digital. It was fast, it seemed like it was an effect.“
*The moment occurs from minute 3:42 of the video.
Annette Benning was going to be Catwoman
Michelle Pfeiffer: “As a child, I was completely obsessed with Catwoman. When I found out that Tim was doing the movie and there was already an actress for Catwoman, I was devastated. At the time, it was Annette Bening. She then she became pregnant. The rest is history. I remember going halfway through the script and telling Tim that he was going to do the movie, that’s how excited I was.“
The suits were not comfortable at all.
Michael Keaton: “They hadn’t perfected the suit and it didn’t work properly. I was moving around making big, bold, strong movements from the torso, and it worked.“
Pfeiffer: “It was the most uncomfortable suit I have ever worn. They had to powder my body, help me put it on, and then vacuum pack me. He had those claws and they always dug everywhere. The mask was crushing my face and suffocating me… Originally they didn’t leave a way to use the bathroom in the suit, so that had to be remedied.”
Danny DeVito: “It was four and a half hours of makeup and getting into the costume. We cut it down to three hours at the end of the shoot. She had pounds of facial prosthetics and body fillers, and false hands, which were difficult to wear. He kept them on for half the time.“
Tim Burton is scary in real life
DeVito: “When I met Tim, he gave me a drawing of a small creature with red and white stripes, on top of a yellow ball. There was a line: ‘My name is Jimmy, but my friends call me the horrible penguin boy.’ I’m looking at it right now. I take it with me anywhere I go.“
Tribute to Vincent Price
Christopher Walken: “When we first met, Tim showed me a picture of Vincent Price in an old movie. He was fascinated with her clothes and his hair, he wanted Max to look like that.“
The set had its own complications
DeVito: “I’m the kind of guy who loves being on set, but it was freezing as fuck because we had real penguins and they had to keep the water really cold. They had huge air conditioners. I was the only one who was comfortable, because of all the prosthetics, the padding and the heavy coat.”
Keaton wanted Batman to speak very little
Daniel Waters, screenwriter: “In my version of the script, Batman and Bruce Wayne were talking a lot more. Michael Keaton would go through the script and say, ‘Hey, this line is great but you need to cut it. This is a good speech, but you have to take it down.’ He wanted to have minimal dialogue, especially in the Batman suit. When I saw the final cut, I realized that he was absolutely right.“
Keaton: “When I realized how powerful the suit was, in terms of screen image, I just used it.“
Batman didn’t kill in the original script
Waters: “It wasn’t in my script for Batman to kill the clown by throwing the bomb back at him. To me, if he’s going to kill someone, he had better be worth it. It must mean something. So when he carelessly kills people, it’s a bit creaky.“
Warner resurrected Selina shortly before the premiere
Waters: “[Selina] she is completely dead after the electric kiss. The final shot of her head appearing in the shot was recorded literally two weeks before the premiere. Screenings showed that audiences were responding positively to the Catwoman character, so the studio wanted a more concrete glimpse that she was still alive.“
McDonald’s got into the movie
Burton: “With the first Batman, you would never hear the word franchise. With the second one, we started getting comments from McDonald’s like, ‘What’s all that black stuff coming out of Penguin’s mouth?’ People were starting to think of these movies in terms of marketing. That is the new world order.“
*Interestingly, Keaton would later star in ‘The Founder’, a film about the history of McDonald’s.
Danny Elfman wrote the music during a flight, going into the bathroom every 10 minutes.
Elfmann: “I was listening to the whole thing in my head… I was figuring it all out on this incredibly loud 747. Since I was sitting next to someone else, I didn’t want to yell into the recorder. So he kept going to the bathroom, which was even louder. I guess it was closer to the engines or something.”
“Everything was getting weirder because I kept coming back every 10 minutes with new ideas. And every time I went out there were more and more flight attendants worriedly asking me if everything was okay. This was before the terror scare, otherwise I’m sure he would have ended up handcuffed or arrested.Everyone was saying, what the fuck is this guy doing every 10 minutes?“
Warner wanted to change direction with ‘Batman 3’
Burton: “Halfway through my meeting with Warner I realized they really didn’t like me. They kept saying to me, ‘Don’t you want to go back and make a movie like ‘Edward Scissorhands’? Anything smaller?’ I replied: ‘You don’t want me to make the film, do you?’“
As we know, Burton left the franchise (later he would laugh at the bat-nipples) and Warner signed Joel Schumacher. The vision of the study and the new director caused Keaton to also leave the saga, being replaced by Val Kilmer in ‘Batman & Robin’ (1997), who in turn was replaced by George Clooney in ‘Batman Forever’ (1995).
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