Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the Batman TV series premiere,
which is a boom bonus thing you didn't know right out of the gate.
But we already did an episode on the Batman series with Adam West.
And since we've also already dropped some knowledge bombs on you about the Nolan era
Batman, we decided to turn our focus to Tim Burton's Batman from 1989.
So here are seven things you didn't know about Batman, probably.
(Sound) Batman works solo in the film but
it wasn't going to be that way earlier on in development.
Robin was supposed to be in the movie too originally.
Ultimately, the story structure that they worked out simply didn't permit it.
And director Tim Burton felt that it made more sense to have Batman working alone
since Robin didn't appear until Detective Comics number 38 anyway.
>> Holy skyrocket!
>> It was his way of capturing the mythology of the characters more
authentically and accurately.
But don't worry, the nerds still found other reasons to get pissed at him anyway.
(Sound) The 1989 Batman is a classic nowadays, so it's easy to forget that it
was a high stress watershed moment for reviving the Batman franchise onscreen.
>> You must be joking.
>> Do I look like I'm joking?
>> It was a chance to embrace the more serious tone batman had taken
in Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns from 1986 and
finally break away from the campiness of the 1960s batman.
>> Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.
>> Well, for the most part, bat dance still happened.
So we can just blame that on the 80s and move on.
Anyway, the studio wasn't convinced that going the serious
route was the right move at first.
I'll bet you didn't know that there was talk of casting Bill Murray as Batman and
Eddie Murphy as Robin, you know, when they were still going to have a Robin.
Warner Brothers was discussing several different approaches to how they wanted to
reboot the franchise.
Luckily, they didn't decide to go the comedy route and
made the wise decision to get Tim Burton on board.
(Sound) >> I want you to tell all your
friends about me.
>> What are you?
>> I’m Batman. >> For
pretty much anyone born before 1990, Michael Keaton is Batman,
not Christian Bale and definitely not Ben Affleck, not yet anyway.
Regardless with hindsight being 20/20, today Michael Keaton
seems like a brilliant yet obvious choice for playing Batman.
I mean, it defined his career to some extent.
Which, if you've seen Birdman, maybe wasn't super awesome for him.
Getting back on topic, here's something you probably didn't know.
When Tim Burton picked Michael Keaton for the role of Batman,
it created a bit of an uproar.
After all, Keaton had just done Beetlejuice with Burton,
so he was seen as more a comedic actor at the time.
>> Your name's Beetlejuice?
>> You said it twice.
Just say it once more.
Come on.
>> Ironically, if Beetlejuice hadn't been such a big hit,
Warner Brother probably wouldn't have greenlit Tim Burton to direct Batman.
And even though he'd been working on Batman for a long time the studio didn't
really pull the trigger until Beetlejuice proved itself at the box office.
But I'm getting sidetracked with boom, a bonus thing you didn't know.
The studio feared that casting Michael Keaton as Batman would make it silly all
over again instead of resuscitating the property and taking it in a new direction.
The only thing that got them to calm down and
trust in Burton's decision was casting Jack Nicholson as the joker.
>> You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
(Laugh) >> Jack Nicholson brought a street cred
and weightiness to the film and submitted it as something that was not for the kids.
Securing Nicholson was the final piece that helped complete the transition of
Batman from a comic to a motion picture.
(Sound) Courtesy of Bob Kane,
the Batman logo got a facelift for the film and its marketing campaign.
Today, we can look at that emblem and know what it is immediately.
These days, the Bat logo is so iconic that we just take it for granted.
But that wasn't the case at the time.
Upon first glance for most people,
it wasn't clear what they were looking at exactly.
At first, some thought they were looking at the inside of someone's throat or
something but then after a moment, they would get it.
You know, kind of like those magic eye posters,
which is a reference that's also for people born before 1990.
Hey, you know what doesn't make more sentence the longer you stare at it?
Bat dance.
(Sound) We've mentioned a few times that Batman
came out in 1989, which means that there wasn't any Internet.
Which means that there wasn't any way to leak the trailer or watch it on demand.
Problem was the trailer was in extremely high demand.
So people hack the problem, 80s style, with cocaine.
No, I'm just kidding.
Well actually, in a fair number of cases, I'm definitely not kidding.
(Laugh) >> Regardless,
the trailer was in such high demand that people were calling movie theaters
just to find out what time trailers would be playing, not the movies, the trailers.
They didn't buy tickets to a movie they didn't even care about,
watch the Batman trailer and then leave without seeing the movie they paid for.
As if that weren't enough, anticipation for Batman was so
high that people were stealing the posters from bus stops and train stations.
And the marketing team had to keep sending out replacements.
And it looks like I just sent out,
boom, a bonus thing you didn't know, right up in to your bus stop.
(Sound) Batman was shot at Pinewood Studios in
England, simply because the Warner Brothers lot didn't have the space.
Pinewood had a huge backlot, which had a whole lot of nothing on it at the time, so
it was the perfect place for them to build Gotham City.
London had both the space and production talent to make Batman possible.
But it wasn't going to be cheap.
Most people don't know that Batman was actually the biggest budget film in
England's history at the time.
Seems crazy low by today's standards but it cost around $35 million.
$35 million in 80s money is a whole of crumpets,
or pints, or bangers or English cocaine, whatever, I don't know.
Last thing. (Sound) Even with a huge budget,
the production team still had to be smart with how they spent it.
And then them coming up with clever solutions for building the Batmobile.
So the team used things that were already around and available whenever they could,
rather than having all sorts of special parts custom made.
For example, the Bamobile's gas cap is actually a petrol cap from a London bus.
For the headlights, they just took them off of a Honda Civic, and
turned them upside down to create a more unique shape.
There was one minor problem with that though.
Tim Burton said the lights were too white, and he wanted yellow ones instead.
The solution?
The team just painted them yellow.
The Batmobile's exhaust was an adapted afterburner from a jet.
And since it was round, they wanted the tail lights to be round as well.
But they weren't able to get the lights off of a Civic this time around.
So, they thought about car companies that had round lights and came up with Ferrari.
They gave Ferrari a call, ordered a few lights, and
they were able to put the finishing touches on the Batmobile.
>> Stop. (Sound)
>> All right,
hopefully you guys are now seven things smarter about Batman.
If you're interested in more things from the 80s and
90s era Batman, hit the thumbs up let us know.
Except for Batman and Robin, (Bleep) that.
Thanks for watching and be sure to check out cinefix.com and subscribe for
more truish things about movies and
sometimes cocaine in your bus stop right here on things you didn't know.
(Sound)