Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin
Last year we got to hear Adam West and Burt Ward one more time in the BATMAN: RETURN OF THE CAPED CRUSADERS animated flick, which was very enjoyable indeed and showed the heroes as they looked in the 1960s television series. The website www.darkhorizons.com now also reports that Adam West did complete another audio adventure that will be released as an animated film very soon: BATMAN VS TWO-FACE, which will star William Shatner as Harvey Dent / Two-Face. Seeing as how William Shatner will also be shown the way he looked when he was shooting STAR TREK in the mid-1960s, this will definitely be something I will look out for.
William Shatner and Adam West
As a related Item, www.vice.com reports that their reporter spoke to director Joel Schumacher, the director of BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN & ROBIN in the 1990s. And Schumacher again apologized for having made one of the most appalling movies of the 1990s, BATMAN & ROBIN.
Alicia Silverstone, George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell
When Tim Burton made his first BATMAN movie in 1989, he was very much able to put his dark stamp on the film. This was so successful that he was given almost free range for the sequel BATMAN RETURNS. However, Danny De Vito as the Penguin was rather bizarre and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman in her kinky bondage costume very family-unfriendly so the producers wanted Burton off the franchise. They asked Joel Schumacher (who had done some very succesful smaller films) to bring the series into much more family friendly cinematic waters. Schumacher had a hit with BATMAN FOREVER, starring Val Kilmer and Chris O'Donnell as Batman and Robin. When this film did well, everyone at Warner's felt Schumacher should do another one and amp up the commercializing as well as the campiness. After all, this would pull in lots of kiddies who'd want to see the film over and over again. But when Schumacher got the suggestion to also bring in female viewers by introducing BATGIRL, the scales started to tilt the other way. Schumacher went with it however and made BATMAN & ROBIN an efficient sequel to his earlier film, but the film went totally overboard storywise, characterwise and humorwise. End Result: BATMAN & ROBIN soured the fans on the franchise and Warner Brothers put the franchise on ice for the time being.
Bat-Nipples, anyone ??
Both Clooney and O'Donnell had their doubts: O'Donnell felt he was making a childrens' toy instead of a good film and Clooney later said it was hard to be good in it. On his defense though, Clooney was an excellent Bruce Wayne, much better than Val Kilmer. But, true, the film turned out to be a disaster, souring the fans on the franchise and while Schumacher was even still talking to Nicholas Cage to play the Scarecrow in the next film, Warner Brothers pulled the plug.
On the special editions of the films on DVD and BLU RAY, Schumacher has already apologized to the fans years ago on the commentary tracks for his film. Now, also 20 years after the fact, on this interview on www.vice.com, he again apologizes. That almost makes up for a lot. Want to read the interview ? Go to :
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/twenty-years-later-joel-schumacher-is-very-sorry-about-batman-and-robin
All Rights Reserved of course to DC for any Batman and Robin and related character rights and to www.vice.com for the mention of their wonderful interview. Thanks, guys, great work !!!!
And thank the lord for Christopher Nolan, who brought realism back into the Batman world, 7 years later. But that's another story again. One I will certainly come back to soon.
