Exclusive Book Excerpt: How Batman vs. Superman's Development Hell Gave Way to Batman Begins
Film journalist and biographer David Hughes has long written with authority on subjects from Stanley Kubrick to David Lynch. But few writers know more about the vicissitudes of that uniquely Hollywood phenomenon known as "development hell." Hence the updated, revised edition of Hughes's book Tales From Development Hell, which arrives in store and online today. And Movieline has an exclusive excerpt that you can browse now.
Development Hell is chockablock with gossip, infighting, false starts and dirty little secrets that afflicted films both realized (Indiana Jones 4, Total Recall) and abandoned (Crusade, Crisis in the Hot Zone), with a little bit of limbo thrown in for good measure (Fantastic Voyage, The Sandman). In this exclusive excerpt, Hughes revisits the Batman franchise's tortured road back to respectability — by way of the stalled Superman franchise. Really.
Warner Bros evidently saw a team-up movie as more than just a tantalizing possibility, but a viable way of bringing the Superman and Batman franchises out of the development mire. It was soon confirmed that the studio was excited about a script entitled Batman vs Superman, written by Se7en and Sleepy Hollow scribe Andrew Kevin Walker and subsequently "polished" by Akiva Goldsman (Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, A Beautiful Mind), in which the characters would begin as allies, albeit with radically different worldviews, before facing off in a showdown brought about by Bruce Wayne’s familiar desire to avenge the violent killing of a loved one.
The story begins five years into Bruce Wayne’s life post-Batman, having put his costume back into the closet following the death of Robin. He has settled down, married a woman named Elizabeth, and is happier than ever. Over in Metropolis, however, Superman has not been so lucky in love, having been dumped by Lois Lane due to the myriad difficulties of being Clark Kent’s girlfriend. When The Joker, previously thought dead, kills Elizabeth with a poison dart, Bruce takes it hard. First, he blames Superman, because the Man of Steel saved The Joker from a fatal beating just before the murder; second, he resumes the mantle of Batman — not, this time, under any pretense of metering out justice, but for the sheer cathartic pleasure of beating up bad guys. Superman, who has been busy wooing his first love, Lana Lang, in Smallville, tries to talk Bruce out of his vengeful ways, an act which ultimately pits the two heroes against each other. Eventually, it transpires that Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor was behind The Joker’s return, hoping that Batman and Superman would kill each other. Instead, the two heroes unite to defeat first The Joker, and finally Luthor, the man fundamentally behind Elizabeth’s death.
Opinions from Internet script reviewers were divided, either over the details of the Walker and Goldsman drafts, or the very idea of having Batman and Superman go mano a mano. Responding to an unfavorable review of Goldsman’s rewrite by Coming Attractions’ Darwin Mayflower, Batman on Film reporter "Jett" said that, while he had not read the Goldsman draft, “I very much liked Walker’s original... I thought it was a very dark and powerful script and had a very clever way of pitting Batman against Superman. Mayflower flatly does not like the squaring off of Bats and Supes... [whereas] I found it quite exciting — plus you know that they are going to end up as allies in the end. Mayflower also has a problem with Goldsman’s (who many credit for the killing of the Bat-franchise with his p.o.s. Batman & Robin script) rewrites,” Jett added. “The only reason I can come up with why WB let Goldsman do rewrites was to lighten the script up a bit. Walker’s original — in my opinion — was dark. Perhaps WB thought too much so.”
Nevertheless, the studio was sufficiently excited about the script to postpone its plan for a new stand-alone Superman film and a fifth Batman in order to fast-track Batman vs Superman for a 2004 release, with Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) at the helm. “It is the clash of the titans,” the German-born director told Variety in July 2002. “They play off of each other so perfectly. [Superman] is clear, bright, all that is noble and good, and Batman represents the dark, obsessive and vengeful side. They are two sides of the same coin and that is material for great drama.” Petersen subsequently spoke to MTV.com about his love for the Batman and Superman films, “especially in both cases the first two. I saw them over and over again.” Batman vs Superman, he added, would be part of the lore of the films and the comics, “but it’s also different. First of all, the dynamics are different because if they are in one movie together it changes a lot of things and it gives you a new perspective on superheroes... You also have the look and feel of Metropolis, the bright golden city, and the feel of Gotham, which is a shadowy, sinister city, in the same movie. This is Superman/Batman of the time after September 11th, also. It takes place in today or tomorrow’s world.”
Unsurprisingly, the announcement of a fast-tracked Batman vs Superman movie led to a surge of speculation as to which actors might don the respective capes. “We have a script that really very, very much concentrates on the characters,” Petersen told MTV.com. “It’s really material for two great actors.” Although he had previously cited Matt Damon as a possible star, Petersen later clarified that he was merely an example of the kind of actor he was looking for. “Someone who we so far did not really think of as a big action hero, who turned out to be a great actor who can also do great action... He’s one of these guys, but there’s a lot of these guys out there.” As far as the rumor-mills were concerned, Jude Law and Josh Hartnett were apparently front-runners to play Superman/Clark Kent, while Colin Farrell and Christian Bale — the latter previously connected with the Year One role — were widely mentioned for dual duties as Bruce Wayne and Batman. (“No, that’s Bateman, not Batman,” quipped Bale, referring to Patrick Bateman, his character in American Psycho.) Barely a month after the Variety announcement, however, Batman vs Superman seemed suddenly to have fallen out of favor with the studio, leading director Wolfgang Petersen to quit the project in favor of Troy, an epic retelling of Homer’s The Iliad starring Brad Pitt.
The studio’s swift about-face was based on a number of factors. Firstly, on July 5, Alias creator J. J. Abrams had turned in the first 88 pages of a new stand-alone Superman script, designed to be the first of a trilogy. Bob Brassel, a senior vice president for production at the studio, called producer Jon Peters, urging him to read the work-in-progress. “I did,” Peters told The New York Times, “and it was amazing. In a world of chaos, it’s about hope and light.” Abrams delivered the remaining 50 pages of the script in mid-July, just as Spider-Man began its amazing assault on box office records, suggesting that light and airy, not dark and powerful, was the way to go with superhero flicks. At that point, Peters, Abrams and Brassel met in the offices of executive vice president for worldwide motion pictures Lorenzo di Bonaventura — the man behind the Harry Potter and Matrix movies, and a long time champion of Batman vs Superman — who said that he liked the script (“It had more epic ambition than earlier Superman scripts,” he said later), but that he planned to release Batman vs Superman first. According to Peters, Abrams said, “You can’t do that,” suggesting that it was akin to releasing When Harry Divorced Sally before When Harry Met Sally.
Both sides had their points: with two iconic heroes for the price of one, Batman vs Superman arguably stood the better chance in a marketplace soon to be crowded with superhero films, ranging from Hulk to Daredevil, and more sequels featuring Spider-Man and The X-Men; however, if the darker sensibility of Batman vs Superman did not connect with audiences, it could effectively kill both franchises before they had had a chance to be revived. Besides, if either Batman or Superman failed, the studio would still have the team-up movie to fall back on. As studio president Alan Horn told The New York Times, “In reintroducing these characters we wanted to do what was in the best interest of the company.” Thus, in early August, Horn asked ten senior studio executives — representing international and domestic theatrical marketing, consumer products and home video — to read both scripts, and decide which of them stood the better chance in the post-Spider-Man marketplace. “I wanted some objectivity,” Horn explained. “Why not get an opinion or two?” At the meeting, di Bonaventura argued in favor of Batman vs Superman; others, however, felt that Abrams’s three-part Superman story had better long-term prospects for toy, DVD and ancilliary sales. Besides, even if the majority had not favoured the Superman script, Horn had the casting vote. “I said I wanted to do Superman,” he told The New York Times. “At the end of the day it’s my job to decide what movies we make.”
The plan, Horn later told The Hollywood Reporter, was that Superman, the long-mooted Catwoman spin-off, and “a Batman origins movie” (presumably Year One) would revive both franchises, paving the way for a team-up movie. “I’d like to think that each character will evolve so that when we have Batman vs Superman, the meeting of the two will feel more organic,” he said. Peters, the former hairdresser and Batman producer who had toiled through the development of a Superman film for eight years, was moved to tears when Alan Horn phoned to tell him the news. “I swear I heard the flapping of angel wings when Alan was talking,” he said. Peters, in turn, called Christopher Reeve, who had played Superman in four films between 1978 and 1987, and had recently guest-starred on the small-screen Superman show Smallville, despite a crippling spinal injury he suffered in a fall from a horse. “He told me that his original idea was to do a film of Superman vs Batman,” Reeve later recalled. “They were pretty far into it, and then Jon saw that documentary that my son made about me and how five years after the injury I started to move.” According to Reeve, Peters began to rethink the idea: “‘Why should [they] have two superheroes fighting?’ The movie that Warner Bros is making now will be a much more uplifting and spiritual story.” In August, Warner Bros officially switched off Batman vs Superman’s green light. Days later, on Sept. 4, its greatest champion, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, quit after 12 years at the studio, giving credence to the widespread speculation that Horn vs di Bonaventura — an epic battle of wills between two of the studios biggest guns over two of its biggest assets — had contributed to his departure.
Where all this left the Batman franchise was unclear. Almost anyone, it seemed, was invited to apply for the vacancy of the next film’s screenwriter, and even Grant Morrison, author of one of the biggest selling graphic novels of all time, Arkham Asylum, threw his hat into the ring. “My own movie agent at Creative Artists Agency submitted a treatment I’d entitled Batman: Year Zero, which had a young Batman traveling around the world, slowly assembling the familiar components of his outfit and disguise in the year before returning to Gotham as its protector.” As a change from The Joker or the Penguin, Morrison’s villains were Ra’s al-Ghul and Man-Bat from Denny O’Neil’s widely acclaimed Batman stories of the 1970s. Although Morrison’s application was unsuccessful, the team which was assigned the restoration of the Bat-franchise evidently agreed with his approach, electing to return to Batman’s roots as part of their restoration effort.
It was in early 2003 that Warner Bros revealed the new curator of the Bat-franchise: Christopher Nolan, director of the tricksy Memento and a well-received remake of Scandinavian thriller Insomnia. “All I can say is that I grew up with Batman,” Nolan commented. “I’ve been fascinated by him and I’m excited to contribute to the lore surrounding the character. He is the most credible and realistic of the superheroes, and has the most complex human psychology. His superhero qualities come from within. He’s not a magical character.” Although Variety also reported that both Year One and Catwoman — the latter scripted by John Rogers (The Core), starring Ashley Judd (later to be replaced by Halle Berry) and directed by visual effects veteran Pitof — were also on the cards, Nolan’s untitled Batman project seemed the most likely to move forward, although it remained unclear which script would form the basis of the film.
Nolan, who knew Batman but was uncertain about his wider comic book context, turned to David S. Goyer, who scripted Dark City, The Crow: City of Angels, the comic book adaptation Blade and its sequels, and unused drafts of Freddy vs Jason, for help with the script. Ironically, Goyer, whose lifelong dream had been to write a Batman movie script, was unavailable, preparing to direct Blade: Trinity — but agreed to give Nolan some ideas pro bono. As Goyer recalls, “I said, ‘If I did do it, this is what I would do, and you can have my ideas for free.’ I talked for about an hour and spitballed a large amount of what the film is, and Chris said, ‘Wow, that sounds great.’ He went away again for a few more days, [then] I got a call saying, ‘You have to do this.’” Goyer carved out the time to write the first draft of the script.
The Nolan-Goyer Batman set out to achieve something no comic book or film had accomplished thus far: tell a definitive origin story, charting the journey from the murder of young Bruce Wayne’s parents all the way to the formation of Batman as a masked vigilante. Drawing heavily on the comic book history of the character, Nolan and Goyer filled in the blanks, working with Nolan’s regular production designer Nathan Crowley to build a Batman story from the ground up — exactly the approach which Warner Bros wanted to re-boot its biggest property. Released on June 5, 2005, Batman Begins made just over $200 million at the US box office — $50 million (and a few million audience members) short of Burton’s Batman, but a healthy start to what would, with The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) signal the return of the bat to box office dominance — not only among its comic book peers, but Hollywood in general. Sixteen years since Tim Burton’s Batman gave birth to the film franchise and Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin killed it off, the Dark Knight had returned — with a vengeance.
The updated and revised Tales From Development Hell is available today in stores and online.
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Comments
Interesting insider info. That Batman vs Superman actually sounds pretty interesting. Would be the best thing for Superman, who is a very uninteresting Superhero of a bygone era. Superman's infallibility harkens to the heroes of the forties and fifties, so I can't imagine his franchise becoming anything special, even with this new reboot.
I'm glad Nolan came in. I really hate Batman Begins for a bunch of reasons starting with Batman's silly voice and ending somewhere around the double antagonists, but Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight made it all worth it (even though Nolan still couldn't help having a second antagonist with Harvey Dent-- what a dumb idea). I'm looking forward to the last installment.
What a mistake to make that Superman movie, too. Bad casting choice, bad directing choice. And sadly, Superman is simply too much of a goody goody for our tastes in heroes today.
And sadly, Superman is simply too much of a goody goody for our tastes in heroes today.
Tell it to Zack Snyder!
Well, I hope he can prove me wrong.
But I did see Sucker Punch, so...
*ahem*
Just thought I'd throw in my two cents. Actually, factual evidence's two cents. And what you said about Batman not being interesting anymore, care to explain the booming success of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Batman: Arkham City? Let's just talk about the recent Batman: Arkham City for a mintue. I mean, it's not like Arkham City was nominated for a whole lot of awards including Game of the Year-- Oh wait, it was. And it's not like it received 10/10 from a crap-ton of reviewers-- oh wait, it did that too. Well, at least it's not like Metacritic says that it's the best-reviewed game of 2011 or that it is the sixth highest-rated game of all time-- oh wait, it did say those things. Hm... So taking into account all of the success just Arkham City had (along with all the other recent things in the Batman franchise), you're saying Batman isn't interesting? Sure... (by the way, this comment is a reply to two of your comments if you didn't notice)
He said Superman is uninteresting not Batman...
Wow, Jake, you are a nozzle and your opinions are shit, you dopey hipster you.
@jake...are you joking...seriously...the guy who did Batman Forever and Batman & Robin would have polished the script for batman v superman. That is the dumbest thing anyone could have ever done. BTW the whole script sounds atrocious. Batman settling down because of the death of robin...wtf so the death of his parents made him fight crime,...but the death of robin pushed him over the edge TO STOP...THAT IS COMPLETELY ILLOGICAL. AND SUPERMAN CAN'T KEEP LOIS AS HIS GIRLFRIEND ...HES FREAKING SUPERMAN HE CAN MAKE TIME, HE CAN DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING. oh and then magically bruce is mad at clark for saving the joker....HOW MANY GODDAMN TIMES HAS HE SAVED THE JOKER BECAUSE BATMAN WONT KILL. sob man ...get a grip man. and then you say nolan's batman begins sucks....dude...you suck
Listen, nerd. Neither Batman nor Superman are particularly interesting as heroes anymore. Both have become cliched. So having them fight sounds interesting to me.
I guess to a nerd who reveres these two characters like you clearly do, it doesn't sound that interesting. Jeez, get a life.
P.S. Batman Begins was poorly structured, populated with two villains (one interesting, the other was Liam Neeson), and all the action was shot like crap. I'm sorry, but I don't go to movies to feel like I'm "in the fight" (as Nolan said he wanted us to feel). I want to watch amazing action like you see in old Jackie Chan movies, not watch a bunch of blurry, shaky crap. Anyone can do that. Shooting good action is much harder and takes more talent. TDK was not much of an improvement in that area. You Batman nerds need to get real and own the fact that BB is a 2 star movie and TDK is a 3 star movie. TDK is good, but not that good. If Heath Ledger was not in it, it would have been a 2 star movie too.
Have a nerd day.
Do you have asbergers syndrome?
hahaha. Assburger. LOL.
BTW, it's aspergers. Do you know what that is? If you did, you probably wouldn't ask that.
Its cool, I know you're a troll but regardless I feel I should at least do my part to defend my two favourite superheroes. I'm going to say that fair enough, a lot of people think Superman is "too much of a goody goody", that he can only be defeated by a meteor rock which is dumb and that he is way too overpowered. And to this all I can say is that they probably haven't even read a story about this character. He fights people much stronger than himself on a daily basis( he never kills, he always holds back just enough to take his enemies in alive). While Batman is fighting the penguin and Spiderman is fighting green goblin, Superman has repelled an alien invasion, saved multiple people from danger and written a story on it all too. He can be hurt if he's hit by something hard enough (Zod, Dark seid, Doomsday etc.). And remember he's an alien we aren't even his people and he devotes his time and effort to defending us from things that threaten even his life when he could probably with a bit of effort dominate the planet. Also he was the first proper Super-hero, he's been around since 1939, theres a reason people still read stories about him. He's interesting. Batman on the other hand is probably more interesting. He saw his parents killed in front of him and vowed he wouldn't let anyone else go through that if he could help it. He turned himself into a crimefighting weapon through studying over 127 different martial arts and obtaining multiple PhD's in areas such as criminology, psychology etc. to help him become the best detective there ever was. And he doesn't kill or use lethal force of weaponry, he refused to become what created him, a murderer. He trusts very few people(Alfred, the Robins, Nightwing to an extent Superman), he always has a plan to take down the allies who he deems pose a threat (Superman is one of those people, he doesn't trust him completely, he never really does). The costume he wears is his main weapon against crime, it makes him a symbol, it causes fear among criminals. When they see it they know they're about to be fucked by a guy who could kill them in a million ways but he's just going to break every bone in their body instead. Also he has some of the best villains in comics ever created hands down.
Yea, Jake is a total DOUCHE who doesn't have a clue about much of anything. I have very little faith the Batman vs Superman would have been very good, especially back in those days. WB had no clue back then. They had just come off of Batman and Robin and every Superman treatment comming in at the time was absolute crap. They got lucky when Nolan and Goyer came aboard and actually had a vision. Without them WB would probably still have their thumbs up their ass and probably would have ended up killing the Batman franchise once and for all if it was anyone else involved. Hopefully Goyer and Nolan layed the same good foundation for Zack Snyder and he'll deliver a great Superman movie next year.
Speaking of Superman, it really angers me when a DOUCHE like Jake says this, "What a mistake to make that Superman movie, too. Bad casting choice, bad directing choice. And sadly, Superman is simply too much of a goody goody for our tastes in heroes today." What a moronic statement right there. If anything, this world needs a hero like Superman more then ever. There's nothing wrong with these darker heros out there, but there will never be a time when Superman is too "goody goody". It's statements like that that show exactly what is wrong with the world today.
ok so because i like batman i'm a nerd, what ever makes you feel better about your lame argument. Calling me a nerd has nothing to do with your argument and proves you know nothing.
Oh btw I guess you must be right even though batman begins is at 85% on Rotten tomatoes while TDK 94%. That's the percentage of people who agree with me, oh and btw they happen to be critics. The actual regular people's percentage is higher.
I just happen to know the characters! and know what they can do. YOU CAN'T HAVE BATMAN FIGHT SUPERMAN. either batman has kryptonite and stops superman or he doesn't and superman murders him....it's not fucking rocket science.
you get a life, stop talking out your ass about stuff you don't know about. I hate it when people just say shit to say shit. When all of your argument is garbage.
OH AND JUST CAUSE A MOVIE HAS 2 VILLIANS DOESN'T MAKE IT OVER POPULATED THAT'S A STUPID OPINION. AND THE ACTION SEQUENCES WERE PERFECT FOR THE STYLE. YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING DURING BATMANS TRAINING THEN AFTER DURING HIM AS BATMAN IT'S A LOT DARKER CAUSE BATMAN ONLY GOES OUT AT NIGHT.
come on man
"YOU CAN'T HAVE BATMAN FIGHT SUPERMAN. either batman has kryptonite and stops superman or he doesn't and superman murders him....it's not fucking rocket science."
Yeah, you're not a nerd at all. *rolls eyes
(...and an angry nerd at that.)
You like BB. That's okay. You just have bad taste. Don't forget that all three of the Star Wars prequels got rave reviews (on RTs). So that's how much your rotten tomatoes argument means.
There's only one reason someone gets so angry over Batman stuff. It's because he's a NERD. Normal people would read this article and find it interesting--not blow a gasket and start ranting because someone else thinks the movie sounds "interesting."
Chill out.
"Don't forget that all three of the Star Wars prequels got rave reviews (on RTs)"
couldn't be farther from the truth. phantom menace got a rotten 57%, attack of the clones got a barely respectable 67%, and only revenge of the sith did well with 80%...obviously none of them reached batman begins or came anywhere close to the dark knight.
btw, whos the bigger nerd - the guy posting his opinions about batman movies or the guy who goes around arguing with nerds on message boards? close call.
Jake, do you really have to come and call people nerds? You're on an article about superman and batman, what do you expect to find here. The fact that you're here means that you're probably a nerd to.
wow jake..u really are a muppet.y dont you raise the money yourself. and make your own movie..you probably cant coz you seem to jack lines from tv shows.. hoping know one would remember.
Personally i ws neva a Batman fan.I found da character boring & unworthy of bein colld a superhero.Ol dat Batman movies did 4me ws hypnotize me in2 a deep sleep...until Chris Nolan,BB & TDK came along.Chris is a genius,BB ws brilliant,TDK ws a masterpiece & hlf da wrld agrees.So,Jake,ol dat is cumin out yo mouth is a big bag of rubbish...dipped in sh*t.
oh my god...you know what yes fine i'm a nerd whatever who cares. whatever makes people happy, it's not like it actually is insulting. So you just brought in the topic of star wars into our conversation and you're not a nerd. ohhhh oooooookay! my turn to roll my eyes.
BTW you're the one that started ranting saying that nolan's movies were crap, how are you going to call me a nerd for defending them while you're over there bashing them first off. Jake, your arguments suck, I'm using common sense to bash you. No one has to be a nerd to tell you that batman vs. superman script was atrocious or could lead to several forms of early onset breast cancer in women. I didn't know you liked breast cancer Jake, that's horrible you want women to die and you don't like boobies.
You see what i did there, i made some crap up too and i'm talking out of my ass. WOW I'M AWESOME JUST LIKE YOU JAKE!
Jake is a complete moron...
The idea of Batman Vs Superman Is AWFUL
the Idea of putting batman and superman Together seems so absurd to me, they come from extremely different places, the tones of each comic could not be more different,
Their powers are different, their way of fighting crime is different, Superman could totally capture all of Batman's enemies in One Day, One Day, to capture Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Two Face,
unless they get a gun with Kryptonite bullets, and superman dies...
this Idea is so completely stupid.....
I never read the comics though,
I just hate that idea. It will probably be made eventually,
If they are going to do something stupid like this then at least do something stupid but fun, a Justice league movie first, I would rather watch that than Batman VS Superman
with the Avengers movie coming out I wonder if anyone is thinking "Justice League"
That is exactly what i was talking about! you don't read the comics so obviously it doesn't take anything but common sense to know that the script is absurd.
what jakes needs is a baseball bat to his jaw several times to shut his mouth for several weeks. what a complete douche. now we see what happens when mothers drop kids like jake on their head as babies.
I think a Superman vs. Batman movie is completely doable, but it would be easy to make a terrible one. Just hire Brett Ratner or Michael Bay and watch the money (and poor reviews) pour in! Unfortunately, I think that's what this Jake guy really wants to see. He seems to think the idea sounds "interesting." What, the idea of two well-known superheroes punching each other? That's all it takes to get you on board, even if the story sounds like utter bullshit?
He further discredits himself by complaining about "dual antagonists". Really? Can you your brain really only handle one at a time? Nevermind that Scarecrow was little more than Ra's Al Ghul's henchman and the two shared zero scenes together. Do you also have a problem with Oddjob being in Goldfinger?
Where's Jake? I want to knock his teeth out! Love, Batman
Nerd Fight!!!
Everyone hates you jake ...go away
People, people. Can't we all just... Get along?
TI;DR (Too Illiterate, Didn't Read)
jake your just an asshole
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Laughing at all of the comments, as we wait, with baited breath, for the arrival of...Batman V Superman! Jake, you were justified. All the other snippy trolls, well, I'll bet they've changed their tune, because, well, that's what comics fans do. Whine a little when the storyline/character changes, then fall in lockstep with the studio/comic company when it's time to release a movie about their fave hero. Too funny.