Tim Burton Wanted to Make a Black and White ‘Catwoman’ Movie

Tim Burton needed to make a Catwoman film that will have been an $18 million black-and-white model of 1942’s Cat People.

Burton first debuted his model of Catwoman, performed by Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns, reverse Michael Keaton’s Batman. The movie ended with a scene teasing the return of Pfeiffer’s character, and for years there was speak of a Catwoman spinoff film. It by no means occurred — till DC made a completely unrelated (and fairly horrible) Catwoman film in 2004, that includes Halle Berry as a totally different incarnation of the feline anti-hero.

Obviously, that’s not what Burton had in thoughts. His Batman Returns screenwriter Daniel Waters just lately revealed Burton’s authentic plan at an L.A. screening of Batman Returns — and how his take totally different from Burton’s. He defined (by way of Indiewire) …

[Tim] needed to do an $18 million black-and-white film, like the unique Cat People, of Selina simply low-key residing in a small city. And I needed to make a Batman film the place the metaphor was about Batman. So I had [Catwoman] transfer to a Los Angeles model of Gotham City, and it’s run by three assh— superheroes. It was The Boys earlier than The Boys. But he obtained exhausted studying my script.

 

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Waters additionally revealed how his preliminary script for Batman Returns was way more meta than the one we noticed, and included materials geared toward poking enjoyable on the first Batman film, and the best way it grew to become a popular culture phenomenon with each potential merchandising tie-in. Waters mentioned the preliminary plan was for Returns to be gun with the Batman emblem — and a reveal that it was at a retailer promoting merchandise in Gotham City. Batman would have made jokes in regards to the merchandise as properly, however Waters mentioned Michael Keaton instructed him “This is very clever. Cut it.”