Batman Returns writer Daniel Waters isn’t a fan of Tim Burton’s original Batman movie from 1989.
Speaking with IndieWire, Waters admitted that he thought the Michael Keaton-starring Batman movie released in 1989 “sucks.”
When writing the script for Batman Returns, Waters included multiple digs at the exploitative merchandise related to 1989’s Batman, with the film “originally set to open on the Batman logo, which would pan out to reveal an in-universe merchandise store.”
Keaton, however, told Waters to remove it from the movie. “[Michael] Keaton said, ‘This is very clever. Cut it,’” Waters said.
Dan Waters on writing Batman Returns: ‘It was a weird assignment’
Speaking further about the process of writing Batman Returns, Waters said, “It was a weird assignment in that I didn’t need to please anyone but Tim Burton. Before the internet, you didn’t have to go before a tribunal and say what you were doing — it was just two guys in a room riffing. We didn’t know shit about Batman villains,” Waters said. “We didn’t really understand the whole comic book thing. I just found out DC Comics stands for Detective Comics.
“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. Now there’s like 50 Batman movies, it’s like, ‘Hey. That was pretty interesting.’”
Following Batman Returns, Val Kilmer took over as the Dark Knight in 1995’s Batman Forever before George Clooney donned the cape and cowl in 1997’s Batman & Robin. Christopher Nolan then rebooted the franchise in 2005 with Batman Begins starring Christian Bale, which was followed by 2008’s The Dark Knight and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises.
Both Batman and Batman Returns are currently streaming on Max.
