Mad Hatter: Film Fitting

[Abishai100]

The Mad Hatter is an unusual man named Jervis Tetch who becomes Gotham's strangest trap-setter.

Modeled after the literary character Mad Hatter from Lewis Carrol's logic-puzzle novel Alice in Wonderland, Tetch represents Gotham City's criminal claustrophobia.

The Mad Hatter (DC Comics) wears bizarre and elaborate hats and seems to believe that criminality is somehow linked to prestige, which makes him a great symbol for insanity and a prime candidate for a new Batman film super-villain.

The array of Batman films has given us a nice social portrait of criminal insanity, and various talented actors such as Jack Nicholson (Joker), Jim Carrey (Riddler), Uma Thurman (Poison Ivy), and Tom Hardy (Bane) have nicely captured the eerie mania associated with Bat-villains.

So this thread is about film ruminations.

1. Who should have played the Mad Hatter in a past Batman film, replacing the ones cast?

2. Who should play the Mad Hatter in a future Batman film, and who should direct?


Here are my responses.

PAST: Dustin Hoffman as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" [1992], replacing Danny DeVito's Penguin.

FUTURE: Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in a Batman film directed by Steven Spielberg.







Mad Hatter (Batman Wiki)

 

[GothamAnarky]

He's one of my favorite villains.
To be honest, they could lift his portrayal straight from the
Arkham series and it would be a good fit into the DCEU.

 

[Abishai100]

He's one of my favorite villains.
To be honest, they could lift his portrayal straight from the
Arkham series and it would be a good fit into the DCEU.

I think you're 100% correct.

I love the Arkham series by the way, certainly the best comics-adapted video game series, IMO.

The Mad Hatter is right out of Lewis Carroll, and the Arkham presentation highlights the Bat-villain's sense of 'other-worldly' eccentricity and creepy imagination.

When I was a kid, my uncle (in India) had a scooter accident while riding to work, and the scooter dragged him on a road, and a good deal of his skin from his leg was scraped off. When he came home from the hospital, we were all relieved he was wearing a helmet, and the trauma of the incident imprinted in me the basic human appreciation of head-protection.

The fact that the Mad Hatter wears strange hats all the time (modelled after the Lewis Carroll logic-insane character) suggests to me that he's a Bat-villain ultra-conscious about what's inside people's heads (their intelligence, wits, imagination, etc.).

Unlike Scarecrow who's clearly terrifying and Bane who's clearly a bully, the Mad Hatter is a nice mix of evil and pizzazz.

Unlike Riddler and Penguin (and Joker to a lesser degree) who are much about presentation, the Mad Hatter seems to be an 'infusion' of presentation and philosophy (which is why he perhaps mimics the Lewis Carroll literary character --- a sort of 'bloody sarcasm').

That's why I want to see this deranged Bat-villain make it to Hollywood.

What are thoughts about Johnny Depp portraying him? Unfortunately (and frustratingly!) Depp already portrayed the Mad Hatter (from the Carroll novel) in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

You can't have it all...