Even though Tim Burton only directed two “Batman” films, there were a lot more plans for Burton to continue with his vision of DC superheroes. Of course, there’s the infamous “Superman” film he was working on with Nicolas Cage. There was even talk of a third ‘Batman’ film to follow his ‘Returns.’ And apparently, according to the writer of “Batman Returns,” there was even discussion of a Catwoman spinoff film.
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Speaking at a recent Q&A, via IndieWire, Daniel Waters spoke about “Batman Returns,” the sequel he wrote to 1989’s massively popular “Batman.” Famously, ‘Returns’ actually introduced Selina Kyle, played wonderfully by Michelle Pfeiffer. And according to the writer, there were discussions about a film that would spinoff of the main franchise featuring Catwoman. But apparently, the script was just not something Burton was into.
“He wanted to do an $18 million black and white movie, like the original ‘Cat People,’ of Selina just lowkey living in a small town,” Waters explained. “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.”
You can see how those two visions didn’t actually co-exist well. Eventually, as we know, Burton left the franchise to do other things while Warner Bros. would eventually go on to make a “Catwoman” film starring Halle Berry in the lead role. That film wasn’t connected to Burton’s established continuity and would go on to become one of the biggest failures in superhero cinema.
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That said, as much as a “Catwoman” film with the feel of “The Boys” sounds fun in 2024, it probably would be well before its time in the early ‘90s. You can’t deconstruct a genre without first establishing it in the public’s eye. So, honestly, that era was still very, very new to superheroes on the big screen and that version of a “Catwoman” film would have likely not been as well received. Of course, we’d still love to see it.