Batman - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Batman or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Batman

[morris]

The climactic showdown at the clock tower, which was not in the original script, was conceived after Jon Peters and Jack Nicholson saw Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera on London's West End.

[bryan]

When Richard Donner was approached to direct, he considered Mel Gibson for the title role, Michael J. Fox for Robin, Willem Dafoe for The Joker, and Joe Pesci for The Penguin.

[riley]

(at around 35 mins) The surgical tools used to "reconstruct" the Joker's face are the same props as the dental tools used by Steve Martin on Bill Murray in Little Shop of Horrors (1986). Coincidentally, Jack Nicholson appeared in Murray's role in the original The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).

[kim]

The film is one of the earliest examples of a work that tries to subvert the idea that the Joker is criminally insane and isn't responsible for his actions, an idea that only really emerged in the 70's itself. Like Batman: The Animated Series (1992), it does so by making him a violent criminal even before he had his toxic bath, though in this one he is killed before we find out if he would have been thrown in an insane asylum rather than prison, it's only because he's managed to convince people that he's crazy, rather than actually being as crazy as he pretends).

[kristen]

Anton Furst's designs for Gotham City were incorporated into the comics during the early 1990s. The design was removed during the "No Man's Land" story theme where most of the buildings in Gotham City were destroyed by natural disasters and terrorist acts.

[jessica]

The Bat Cave was created on Pinewood's stage D and completely filled its 18,150 square feet.

[jessica]

(at around 1h 30 mins) In the flashback scene when Bruce is repressing memories from when his parents were killed, the beginning of this flashback shows a movie poster of Footlight Frenzy encased in glass on the wall of the Monarch Theater. A closer look towards the bottom revealed that it was directed by Ron House. There was a Footlight Frenzy (1984) made but only five years earlier in 1984 in the UK, though this flashback was suppose to be roughly thirty years earlier. Ronald E. House played one of the characters, Tony Langdon. This is easily viewable on the Blu-ray edition of this movie, but may be easily missed in earlier formats.

[darrell]

Bill Murray was rumored to have been attached to a comedic iteration of the film directed by Ivan Reitman. However, while promoting Quick Change (1990) on an episode of The Arsenio Hall Show (1989), he denied ever being considered for the role, rendering this alleged idea of a Batman film nonexistent.

[russell]

For its first video release, the film was graded slightly lighter, as cinema audiences had complained that it was filmed so dark that they could hardly see what was going on.

[jeffrey]

20. The Batmobile was the second most important design element after Batman's costume, and Tim Burton recalls discussing the "perversity" of the vehicle. That's what led to the "weird sort-of round thing, the sort-of jet engine thing" at the front of the car "which almost has a strange, obscene quality. There's just something aggressive about it that we liked."

[lonnie]

Kyle MacLachlan lobbied hard for the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne.

[leo]

Steve Englehart claims the movie version of Vicki Vale was based on Silver St. Cloud. In fact the Vicki Vale in the comics preceded Silver by several decades. She was first introduced in 'The Scoop of the Century!' (Batman #49, October 1948), where she set out to chronicle Batman's exploits with her camera.

[camila]

Rotelli's first name in the original script was Carmine. However, on the day of shooting the boardroom scene, production designer Anton Furst was under a particularly high level of stress, thus Jack Nicholson improvised the line "Anton got a little hot under the collar."

[gabriel]

Martin Landau turned down the role of Carl Grissom. Future Tim Burton cast members Sir Christopher Lee and Albert Finney were also considered for the role.

[ethel]

(at around 30 mins) In a newsroom scene, Vicki Vale and Alexander Knox examine a map of Gotham City which has been marked with Batman sightings. The map is actually a map of Vancouver, British Columbia.

[ivan]

Batman taking Vicki back to the Batcave recalls Erik taking Christine to his underground lair in Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Of particular note is the way Vicki stands behind Batman as he sits operating the Batcomputer, peering over his shoulder to try and get a closer look at him. This evokes the famous unmasking scene from Chaney's film, where Christine peers over the Phantom's shoulder as he sits playing the organ with his back to her.

[jeffrey]

Tim Burton: (at around 1h 1 min) As one of The Joker's goons in the museum scene.

[ray]

Originally in the climax, The Joker was to kill Vicki Vale, sending Batman into a vengeful fury. Jon Peters re-worked the climax without telling Burton, and commissioned production designer Anton Furst to create a thirty-eight-foot (twelve meter) model of the cathedral. This cost $100,000, when the film was already over budget.

[willard]

The Joker falls to his death during the climactic battle with Batman. In the comics, it had become a long standing trademark for The Joker to appear to be killed at the end of a story, only to return in a later one.