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FrankDixon — The Demonic Duo

Published: 2023-12-03 02:53:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 1384; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 0
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Description Back in 1993, Warner Bros. wanted another Batman movie, but not being a little too dark this time around, and Tim Burton, the director of the first two Batman movies, returns as producer as he pass on the torch to his friend Joel Schumacher to continue with the franchise. Joel said, "Tim has been real supportive of me. He was doing Ed Wood while we were preparing this and was living in New York for a lot of time. When they first offered it to me, the first thing I said is 'I'll do it if Tim wants me to do, because we've been friends since Lost Boys and I really love him. I think he's great and a genius. So I went to Tim who said, 'Yes, please do it.'"

After Joel was onboard, Tim met with the writers Lee and Janet Scott Batchler, and Janet said, "Once we settled with Joel and Tim on who the villains would be, that really helped give us direction. People griped that in the first two Batmans the villains had taken control of the movies, but, in a lot of ways, Batman is a reflection of his villains." She also said, "We realized early on that Batman is really about duality. If you look at Superman. Superman may be Clark Kent but Lex Luthor is always Lex Luthor, Lois Lane is always Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen is always Jimmy Olsen. But in Batman, everybody has a split; Batman is Bruce, Robin is Dick, the Catwoman is Selina Kyle, there's an incredible split to everybody. That was attractive to us and to Joel and to Tim Burton as well We were pitching our story to Tim and started off by saying 'Batman is about duality' and he just said 'Yes!' We knew we had him, so we had to get Joel; the duality intrigued us. We knew they wanted two villains, and having one villain for each side was very intriguing."

Lee said about The Riddler, "By deciding he's Bruce Wayne's enemy, that dictated for us what his logical origin should be. He's someone who worked for Wayne Enterprises and had this worshipful attitude towards Bruce Wayne. These personalities are out there, 'Fans' come from the word 'Fanatic' and they worship these stars until they get snubbed and then they stalk them. That's what Edward Nygma is." He also said about Two-Face, "We do his origin right out of the comics, we was interesting to write; in fact, if they ever bring him back, I would like to see more of both sides of Harvey Dent's personality. What we saw of manic side was great, but I would like to see that logical side a little bit more."

Tim said about Batman, "The legend of Batman is incredibly well-developed and fertile. The heroes, the villains, supporting characters, and storylines have been established over the years, first by Bob Kane in his original comics and then by everyone who's re-interpreted this material for film, graphic novels, and television." Akiva Goldsman, who did revisions, said, "I've been a huge Batman fan since I was a little kid, so being asked to script this movie was a slam dunk for me. I loved the first movie. People have said there were plot problems and I suppose in hindsight, there were probably things that could have been done differently. But I thought it was an honest updating of the Frank Miller 'Dark Knight' myth and a spectacular piece of filmmaking. The second film erred on the side of darkness. I was a little bit spooked by the Penguin. The way the film held together was a little too dark for me." 

Casting the villains was challenging for them and Janet said, "The studio insisted on having two villains after Batman Returns. Joel Schumacher chose Two-Face. He already knew he wanted Tommy Lee Jones. That was already a done deal. They were very open to any second villain that we would chose. So, we said, if you want two villains, we need two heroes and they split. We'll have a villain for Bruce Wayne and one villain for Batman. Tommy Lee Jones was already Batman's villain. So what can we do with the Riddler?" After Tommy Lee Jones was cast as Two-Face, Joel did offer The Riddler to Robin Williams, "I asked Robin. I spend a year trying to talk Robin into it. He said, 'I'm going to do it, Joel. I'm going to do it, but I just couldn't say yes today." Lee said, "Later on, we wanted to do The Riddler, it was going to be Robin Williams. With The Riddler, we wrote it with Robin's voice. He read our script and he loved it, they just didn't make the deal." And Janet said, "We sort of writing with him in mind. But it was a deal that couldn't be made." According to the Batchlers who wrote the script, there was a salary dispute. Williams wanted too much money, and Keaton himself wanted too much money. So, Warner Bros. and Schumacher decided to go with Jim Carrey instead.
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Comments: 2

Monkshood-LaRue [2023-12-03 11:55:26 +0000 UTC]

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FrankDixon In reply to Monkshood-LaRue [2023-12-03 15:39:24 +0000 UTC]

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