‘Batman Returns’  Screenwriter Says Tim Burton Was ‘Exhausted’ By ‘Catwoman’ Spinoff Script: ‘It Was The Boys Before The Boys’

December 29, 2023 @ 4:01 PM

“Batman Returns” screenwriter Daniel Waters described differences between his creative vision for a “Catwoman” spinoff and that of sequel director Tim Burton.

The spinoff project would have centered on Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, and Waters envisioned a comic book satire film much like Prime Video’s “The Boys.” Burton, though, imagined Pfeiffer’s Selina Kyle living in a small town. Waters unveiled details in a recent discussion about “Batman Returns” (1992) after a screening of the film at the Egyptian Theatre.

“He wanted to do an $18 million black-and-white movie, like the original ‘Cat People,’ of Selina just low-key living in a small town,” Waters said. “And I wanted to make a ‘Batman’ movie where the metaphor was about Batman. So I had her move to a Los Angeles version of Gotham City and it’s run by three asshole superheroes. It was ‘The Boys’ before ‘The Boys.’ But he got exhausted reading my script.”

According to Waters, the original “Batman Returns” screenplay draft contained several digs at Burton’s first “Batman” film, released in theaters in 1989. The opening of the sequel initially contained a pan-out from the Batman logo to show a merchandise store within the universe of the Caped Crusader, with the Dark Knight himself referencing all the things that could be purchased during the movie. “[Michael] Keaton said, ‘This is very clever. Cut it,’” Waters said of the references.

Waters also remembered the backlash from the 1992 sequel from fans who pointed out the script’s lack of faithful adaptation for Catwoman’s and The Penguin’s (Danny DeVito) backstories.

“The whole thing about ‘Batman Returns’ is we got attacked by Batman fans because they thought, ‘This is only the second Batman movie, what the fuck are you doing? You’re already going off-road,” Waters continued. “Now there’s like 50 Batman movies, it’s like, ‘Hey. That was pretty interesting.’”

This was originally reported by IndieWire.