Since “The Batman” starring Robert Pattinson is scheduled to be released in mainland China on March 18, it has only been more than a week since we saw Bruce Wayne on the big screen again.
In 1966, the ancient version of “Batman” starring Adam West was the first time this DC Comics superhero appeared in film and television works as a real person. In the hearts of many movie fans, the “Batman” series has truly and systematically begun to be modernized and adapted into film and television, starting from Tim Burton’s “Batman” in 1989.
In 1989, genius director Tim Burton launched “Batman” starring Michael Keaton, and the success of the film spawned three sequels: “Batman Returns” (1992), “Batman Forever” (1995) starring Val Kilmer, and George Clooney “Batman & Robin” (1997), the latter two directed by Joel Schumache. Because “Batman & Robin” was too bad, Warners directly cut off the follow-up sequel plan.
In 2005, Warner Bros. rebooted the movie version of this popular character in DC Comics with “Batman Begins” directed by Christopher Nolan. This version of Batman/Bruce Wayne starring Christian Bale is also the first contact and most popular for many young Chinese audiences. One of my favorite versions. The sequels, “The Dark Knight” (2008) and “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012), broke records at different levels of film history.
After Nolan’s trilogy, the next Batman live-action movie is Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” in the DCEU. Ben Affleck’s version of Batman doesn’t shoot individual soldiers, but goes directly to the assembly. After a cameo appearance in “Suicide Squad,” Batman’s next, and most recent, appearance was in 2017’s “Justice League.” We are all too familiar with all the love and hatred that happened after that.
With Matt Reeves restarting the Batman independent film, the new generation of Robert Pattinson took over the bat shirt and continued to guard Gotham. After a lot of ups and downs, this latest version of “The Batman” has finally taken shape and has received pretty good press reviews. He is also the sixth Batman actor to wear the Dark Knight suit in a movie in nearly 30 years.
Let’s take a look at the interesting stories behind this live-action movie of Hollywood’s super-top character.
Michael Keaton
“Batman” (1989), “Batman Returns” (1992)
The setting that Batman’s voice is lower than Bruce Wayne’s is actually Michael Keaton’s own idea, which was adopted by director Burton. Since then, “deep voice” has become standard in subsequent “Batman” films. The phrase “I am Batman” was also devised by Keaton, and the original script originally said “I am the night”.
Keaton was inaudible in his bat suit (Burton said talking to him was like talking to a deaf person), and his inner claustrophobia helped him better interpret the character, “It would be Made me more introverted and more withdrawn.”
Michelle Pfeiffer was dating Keaton when “Batman” was filmed, and the producers wanted her to audition for the role of Vicky Wahl, but Keaton thought it was too weird to act with his girlfriend, and the role was later To Kim Basinger. Pfeiffer ended up playing Catwoman in “Batman Returns,” though, and they had split up by then.
Producer Jon Peters was with married Kim Basinger during the filming of “Batman,” for whom Basinger later divorced. Keaton wasn’t happy about it because he wanted to chase Basinger too.
When Keaton was first chosen to be “Batman”, it set off a wave of boycotts by comic book fans. In that era without the Internet, they sent more than 50,000 boycott letters to Warner’s office, and even comic book author Bob Kane also seriously questioned the casting decision. After all, the Batman in the comics is more than 1.9 meters long, and Keaton is only 175 meters, so the stylists are worried. Fortunately, the final result is “really fragrant”.
Keaton has seven doubles in “Batman”, one of which is a world-class martial arts master and one is a dancer, all of which are taller than Keaton.
To prepare for the role of Batman, Keaton not only studied the bat, but also read Frank Miller’s “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” comic and lived alone in London for a while before filming began.
Robert Downey Jr. was also a candidate for Batman, but years later, he and Keaton both starred in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” The aforementioned Pfeiffer later also joined the MCU, a generation of Wasp in “Ant-Man and the Wasp”.
Warners wasn’t too happy about having been boycotted for “Batman” and Keaton’s “Batman Returns” $11 million paycheck. The raise was one of the big factors in Keaton’s agreement to return, plus director Burton confirmed to him that “Batman Returns” wasn’t a direct sequel and was more independent in nature.
Although “Batman Returns” did not fare as well as its predecessor, both Keaton and Burton preferred it.
Val Kilmer
“Batman Forever” (1995)
While filming the film, Val Kilmer and Jim Carrey became good friends as they chatted about their respective dead fathers.
Val Kilmer and the director, Schumacher, struggled during filming, with Schumacher calling Kilmer “naive and unreasonable” and saying that Kilmer wouldn’t speak to him for two weeks.
Val Kilmer was in a Batcave in Africa when he knew he had landed the role of “Batman” (on a field trip for “The Ghost and the Darkness”), and he agreed to the role before he had read the script. .
The bat suit is too heavy, and Val Kilmer lost 5 pounds just in the fight scene at the beginning of the film.
George Clooney
“Batman & Robin” (1997)
George Clooney refunded money to many viewers who had seen the film, calling “Batman & Robin” a “waste of money”, believing he had ruined the series, and kept apologizing. But also called the film a major breakthrough in his career, because after playing Batman, he really entered Hollywood (he was an American actor before that). He still has a poster of the film at home as a reminder to himself. (The film currently has a score of 3.7 on IMDb).
During the filming, Clooney also wore a full Batman costume and visited the set of the American drama “Emergency Room” starring him.
Clooney injured his calf playing basketball during a break from filming and had to cut his boots to put on a cast.
In the interview, when asked what props from the set he would like to bring home, Clooney replied that he would like to bring home actress/model Ella McPherson… (very human)
After filming, Clooney said “I think we killed the series”. He was right at the time, Warners kept the Batman franchise on ice for eight years before restarting.
The film originally had two sequels, one of which was called “Batman Unchained”, and both Clooney and “Robin” Chris O’Donnell would return, and the villains were the Scarecrow and Harleen Quinzel; the other was Robin/Nightwing Extras. These episodes were later restructured and became part of the 2015 game “Batman: Arkham Knight”.
Clooney and his double wore a total of 50 bat suits (each with nipples on them).
During the later editing, Clooney’s voice when wearing the Batman suit was lowered by 5%.
Christian Bale
“Batman Begins” (2005), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)
In the trilogy, Bell himself did a lot of dangerous moves that should have been done by the stuntman, but director Nolan did not allow him to get close to the Batmobile and Batmobile.
In “Batman Begins”, Bell and Liam Neeson’s action scenes are almost all done by themselves. Nolan will shoot the action of the stuntman fighting again, and see where it needs to be covered later.
When Liam Neeson was playing with Bell, he had to hunched a lot because he was much taller than Bell (he was 193, Bell was 182).
Bell is very uncomfortable when wearing the bat suit. He doesn’t like it very much. Every time he wears it, he is in a bad mood, which also helps him better interpret Batman. There were two people around him all the time, making sure there were no creases on the bat suit during the shoot.
Bell said the first scene he shot with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman was when Bruce Wayne woke up and the two old men were waiting for him by the bed. When Bell fell asleep in bed, Kane prodded him to wake up and said, “Look! He’s tm asleep. (He’s bloody fallen asleep.)”
Bale wanted to play the monstrous “rage-filled” side of Batman, which Nolan liked.
Bell and Liam Neeson were playing on the ice in “Batman Begins” when they could hear the ice rattling under their feet, and the next day the ice melted.
Bell lost his voice three times while filming “Batman Begins” because he kept his voice down as Batman.
Before “Batman Begins”, Bell had just finished “The Mechanic” and weighed only 55kg (he’s 182). After being cast as Batman, Nolan told him to “gain as much weight as he can.” After 6 months of fitness and diet control, Bell weighed 100 kg when he started shooting (his normal weight is 80 kg). Nolan felt a little too heavy, and Bell quickly lost 18 pounds. He called the “transformation” process very painful.
Screenwriter David S. Goyer’s favorite Batman candidate was originally Jake Gyllenhaal, who was conquered after watching Bell’s audition (Bell was signed before the script was written), and Gyllenhaal’s sister Maggie later appeared in “The” Dark Knight”
During the audition, Bell wore Val Kilmer’s costume in “Batman Forever” and read the script for him with Amy Adams, who later played Louis Laing in the Batman/Superman film.
Cillian Murphy also auditioned for Batman, and Nolan was so satisfied with him that he later cast him as the Scarecrow.
The basic principle of Bell’s interviews is that wherever the character is, he will try to use the accent to be interviewed. All interviews for the “Batman” series use an American accent, and he himself is British Welsh.
Before starring in Batman, Bell tried to avoid watching previous live-action “Batman” movies, trying to keep his performance fresh. He read the comic “Arkham Asylum” in his early years and liked it very much.
In preparation for “The Dark Knight,” Bell doesn’t need to gain as much weight as he did in “Batman Begins,” because the bat suit in “The Dark Knight” is thinner, more elastic, and the first A garment that would make Batman turn his head (in previous versions, Batman couldn’t turn his head, only his entire body).
After filming “The Dark Knight”, Bell wanted to keep the entire Bat suit, but he couldn’t, so he only left Batman’s mask.
Michael Keaton likes “The Dark Knight” very much, he likes Nolan, Bell and Heath Ledger.
Bell and Heath Ledger previously co-starred in “I’m Not There”, and Bell also co-starred in “American Psycho” (2000) with the next Joker, Jared Leto.
Bell said that while filming the famous “Interrogation” scene between Batman and the Joker, Heath Ledger asked him to hit him as hard as possible to make him more involved.
For “The Dark Knight Rises” Tom Hardy had to wear 7cm shoes to make Bain taller than Bell, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.
For “The Dark Knight Rises”, Bell dyed his own hair white/grey to make Bruce Wayne look older.
In an interview in 2019, Bell said that Warners originally wanted him to make a fourth “Batman” film, but Bell said that he would only agree to act if Nolan came to direct. Obviously Nolan didn’t agree to make the fourth film, and Bell didn’t play it either.
When “The Dark Knight Rises” was released that year, Bell and his wife visited some wounded audience members after a shooting at a movie theater in Colorado.
Bell has said that if Robin appeared in the film, he would not play it, because it would weaken the dark temperament of Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy. Nolan agreed to his request, only for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character to finally reveal his name as “Robin”.
Ben Affleck
“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016), “Suicide Squad” (2016), “Justice League” (2017)
Warners warned Ben Affleck not to read reviews online after he was cast as Batman, because there was a good chance fans would boycott it, and told him about Michael Keaton. Ben Affleck still watched it online, and the first comment he saw was “Affleck plays Batman? No!!!!!!” Then he quickly quit the Internet.
In response to some of the bad reviews “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” received, Ben Affleck and “Superman” Henry Cavill both said, “We made this film for the fans, not the critics.”
The choice of Ben Affleck was the idea of director Zack Snyder. Ben Affleck was also convinced after meeting with director Zack. Ben Affleck was the first choice of the producers from beginning to end.
After know that Ben Affleck had been chosen to play the next Batman, Bell met with Ben Affleck and gave him his own blessing.
This version of the Batsuit has a small machine that can lower Batman’s voice, which was suggested by director Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck’s good friend, because he felt that Ben Affleck’s own voice was a bit high for Batman.
In order to star in Batman, Ben Affleck gained 18 pounds and reached an 8% body fat rate. He started working out 2 hours a day from the moment he was selected and hated it.
Ben Affleck asked the producer if he could keep his bat suit, and the producer said yes, but you need to pay $100,000. Ben Affleck changed his mind and just took a photo of the Batsuit, which was adapted from Frank Miller’s comic “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”.
Warners were satisfied with the film at the time. They had just finished watching the rough cut version, and they planned to sign a contract with Ben Affleck for him to play the “Batman” independent trilogy.
When asked what Ben Affleck’s daughters thought about their dad playing Batman, Ben Affleck said, “They don’t care, they just want to see ‘Frozen.'”
The producers wanted Ben Affleck to direct “Man of Steel”, but Affleck declined, saying he had little experience with visual effects.
Warners also approached Ben Affleck to direct a “Justice League” movie, in which he would also play Batman. In this film, Batman and Wonder Woman have a child, the villain is Darkseid, and “The Flash” Barry Allen travels back in time to warn people that Darkseid is about to invade, but the project never took off.
Ben Affleck192, the tallest Batman of all time (successor Robert Pattinson185), is also the oldest – he was 43 when he played, Keaton was 38, Val Kilmer, Clooney and Pattinson were all 36 (par Dinson turned out to be 36), Bell 30.
In his early years, 17-year-old Ben Affleck auditioned for the role of “Robin” in 1989’s “Batman”, but the role was later axed.
This is also the second superhero role for Ben Affleck, who originally played “Daredevil” (an adaptation of Marvel Comics) in 2003.
Superman’s mother “Martha” Diane Lane in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, and Ben Affleck in “Hollywoodland” – Ben Affleck in “Hollywoodland” It was one of the first “Superman” actors, George Rivers.
After composing the score for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, Hans Zimmer says he’ll never score for a superhero movie again because Ben Affleck “lacks the pain of Bell,” but he’s back (“Dark Phoenix” and “Wonder Woman 1984”).
Ben Affleck and Jared Leto were filmed separately during the supplemental shot of the “Justice League” cut, while Ezra Miller’s part was shot on the set of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” directed by the “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.” Filmed by the director.
Robert Pattinson
“The Batman” (2022)
Robert Pattinson was in Los Angeles rehearsing for “Tenet” when he auditioned for “The Batman”. He lied to director Nolan, saying that he took leave because of family matters. Nolan said, “Are you going to audition for Batman?” The day before “Tenet” started, Pattinson was told that he was selected In order to play Batman, he hadn’t told Nolan yet, and Nolan came to congratulate him.
Pattinson said that when he auditioned wearing a bat suit, he secretly took a selfie, “in case you don’t get selected.” He auditioned for the bat suit from Val Kilmer’s “Batman Forever,” but couldn’t get his head in it, wearing the mask of George Clooney from “Batman & Robin.”
Pattinson’s version of Bruce Wayne, inspired by “Nirvana” frontman Kurt Donald Cobain. Director/writer Matt Reeves was listening to Nirvana when he wrote the first act, and he was immediately thinking of Pattinson, not knowing if he was going to be cast.
Eight months after writing the script, Reeves finally met Pattinson. The moment Reeves put on the black blindfold while watching Pattinson audition, he knew it was him.
If Pattinson isn’t drafted, the backup is Nicholas Hoult.
Pattinson signed a trilogy with Warner Bros. He was also the second Briton to play Batman after Bell.
Before the shoot, Pattinson and “Catwoman” Zoë Kravitz got the same advice from their ex – Bell and Michelle Pfeiffer told them to make sure they could go to the bathroom while in uniform. Pattinson and Zoe had been friends for many years before appearing in the film, and the chemistry between the two was excellent during the filming.
Pattinson said that in preparation for Bruce Wayne, he would listen to heavy metal, or classical music like Bach or Wagner.
The scene where Pattinson says “I’m vengeance” is his own idea and improvisation (did you think of the scene in “The twilight saga” where he asks Bella to say “revenge”…).
Pattinson has been a Batman fan since he was a child, and he watched every “Batman” movie for the first time during its opening weekend.
During the filming of the film, Pattinson was diagnosed with the new crown at one point, and filming was interrupted for two weeks. The director didn’t want to be diagnosed, so he wrapped himself up tightly during filming, wearing masks, gloves, headgear and diving goggles.
Pattinson’s hair is light brown/dark blonde, he dyed his hair dark brown for the film.
While filming, Pattinson had been taking socks home from the set, and Warners noticed it later and asked him, “You’ll be fine with a few pairs, but we’ve been shooting for a year. How many socks do you need?”
Batman’s full name is Bruce Thomas Wayne, Pattinson’s full name is Robert Thomas Pattinson, and the comic’s author stated that the inspiration for “Bruce” was the famous Scottish patriot Robert Bruce (appeared in “Braveheart”) .
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