Batman Returns/Trivia

Actor Allusion: Christopher Walken plays a light-haired Corrupt Corporate Executive named Max. His full name is also a reference to Max Schreck, who played Count Orlok in the classic silent movie Nosferatu.
Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, besides Hiroyuki Watanabe reprising his role from the previous film, Catwoman is voiced by veteran actress Reiko Tajima and Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin is voiced by film and stage actor Ben Hiura.
DVD Commentary: Tim Burton provides a somewhat insightful one, laced with a lot of rambling and giggles.
Executive Meddling: See What Could Have Been below.
Hey, It's That Guy!: Vincent Schiavelli (that droopy-eyed guy Milos Forman cast in many of his films) plays the Organ Grinder, while Zangief plays Chip Shreck. And Abe Sapien plays the "Thin Clown". While the Cobblepots are Pee-wee Herman and his short-lived admirer Simone.
- The Mayor of Gotham is recognizable to fans of Robert Altman and/or Garry Trudeau as the protagonist of Tanner '88.
Money, Dear Boy: During his appearance on the WTF Podcast with Marc Maron, Michael Keaton stated that he has never watched the completed film. He went on to explain that he only took the role because he needed money for a real-estate deal.
Production Posse: Danny Elfman doing the score, Bo Welch for production design, and Denise De Novi assists in production.
Show Accuracy, Toy Accuracy: Kenner's tie-in toy line did have a number of odd gimmick figures and vehicles that weren't in the movie, which is par for many tie-in toy cash-ins. That's not the example here... no, when Kenner made their line, for some reason, instead of making a new Penguin figure that looked like the character in the film, they simply used the old "Super Powers" comic-based Penguin tooling they'd made years before.
Unintentional Period Piece: The script mentions murderer Ted Bundy (who had been executed just a few years earlier), Alfred suggests that Bruce Wayne switch the TV channel to Love Connection, and in one crowd scene, the camera briefly passes over a young man wearing a jacket with a picture of Gogo Dodo from Tiny Toon Adventures, as if the filmmakers were daring us: "Betcha can't catch us trying to date this film!"
What Could Have Been:
- Annette Bening was Burton's original choice to play Selina/Catwoman, but she turned it down due to her pregnancy at the time. Sean Young, still bitter over losing the role of Vicki Vale in 1989's Batman, lobbied hard to secure the role as Catwoman, even going as far as to confront Burton at the Warner Bros. studios, wearing a homemade Catwoman costume.
- The character of Max Shreck was originally written for Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams), thus explaining the character's political ambitions. The film would have ended on a cliffhanger, with the explosion at the end only scarring him.
- In addition, Dick Grayson was going to have a cameo: he was going to be played by... Marlon Wayans. He would have been a young "sunken-eyed, grimy-looking" homeless child mechanic nicknamed "The Kid", who was enlisted to remove the remote control device Penguin had installed on the Batmobile, before helping Batman stop the legion of penguin commandos from destroying Gotham. Also, Bruce Wayne would have seen Robin's parents get gunned down. Apparently, the character was cut from the movie so close to filming that Marlon was still paid and still gets residual checks for the movie to this day.
- The original script had much, much more members of the Red Triangle Gang. Notable members of the circus in the original script included a duo with razor sharp metal blades encrusted into their heads like mohawks, a teenage clown with a neon medallion that read "CIRKUS" who was the original stun gun clown, and a group of clowns dressed like firefighters who operate a fire-engine that happed to shoot napalm (in a possible dark twist on the clown scene from Dumbo).
- Sam Hamm's original script for Batman 2 included a few Continuity Nods to the first film, such as Bruce proposing to Vicki Vale, a souvenir store selling scraps of the wrecked Batplane, and more insights to the deceased Joker. Catwoman and the non-deformed Penguin were featured, but neither had an origin story, and the Penguin was given the alias "Mr. Boniface" in a Mythology Gag (his original alias in the comics; "Oswald Cobblepot" is nowhere to be found). The Penguin enters the film when he is released from prison for previous offenses, Catwoman comes in when he hires her for her burglary skills, and both go off searching for buried treasure (which would have been revealed to be hidden in the Batcave). Also, in this script, Selina has already taken on her Catwoman persona before the film's events, and is an out-and-out villain, mutilating street thugs and murdering police officers and millionaires in cold blood. Also, Dick Grayson in this iteration of the script is noticeably darker than most of his other portrayals, chastising Batman for not killing criminals.
  - This original script is also, surprisingly, even more violent than the final product.
- A later script draft revealed Max Shreck to be Penguin's older brother, the "golden boy" of the Cobblepot family, whereas the Penguin was the deformed outsider. He was supposedly ashamed of his father, after he threw his baby brother into the sewer, and he emancipated himself from the Cobblepot family as soon as he became of age.
- In Daniel Waters' original treatment, the initial attack on Gotham Plaza is a lot more elaborate, with the thugs invading before the tree-lighting ceremony begins and infiltrating Max Shreck's penthouse office, taking Max, Chip, the Mayor and Selina hostage. Batman has to fight his way up to the penthouse level to save them, in the process leaving the Batmobile behind in an alley... but forgetting to put the shields up on the car. Even more of the Penguin's thugs then approach the exposed automobile and take photographs of it (thus providing an explanation as to how The Penguin got the blueprints to the Batmobile). The novelization indicates the Penguin got the plans from a disgruntled engineer who helped design it.
- One early script describes Penguin as a tall, dignified-looking man.
- Dustin Hoffman was reportedly interested in playing the Penguin. It was actually Jack Nicholson who suggested to Tim Burton that he cast Danny DeVito (whom Nicholson had recently worked with in Hoffa).
- Burgess Meredith (who played Penguin in the 60's Batman series) was considered to play Penguin's father; however, he was unable to appear due to complications resulting from lung cancer.
Working Title: Dictel.

Back to Batman Returns