What-ifs on Batman Returns

[Binker]

In the BR SE DVD, Sam Hamm was interviewed and he said that he and Burton wanted Catwoman as the main villian only. But the studio wanted Penguin and though talk, they did both villians in the end.

Two What-Ifs:

1) What if Catwoman was the main villian of Batman Returns, in your mind, how would it been like in the end?

2) What if Penguin was the main villian of Batman Returns, in your mind, how would it been like in the end?

 

[Soundwave88]

I think Catwomans ending would have kept the same! I love her ending

 

[union_jak]

1) If it was Catwoman only, I could see the plot being very similar; vengeance against her boss, a love plot with Bruce and the same ending.
Without the Penguin she wouldn't have plotted against Batman, probably just stuck with her vendetta against Shreck.

Maybe since the Penguin would have been absent, it would have allowed Harvey Dent to take the Shreck position. It wouldn't have been cluttered.

2) If it was only the Penguin, the mayor plot would have stuck. He would have still been the crime boss and sewer freak. Vicki Vale probably would have still been around for Bruce too.

 

[Catman]

This thread "sort-of" exists already.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

With Catwoman I'd imagine maybe the writers can hatch up a love triangle when Vicki Vale was still in the script.

 

[batlovescatDC]

There was once a love triangle script by Sam Hamm... sucked. I read it. It had a Robin appearing in the end. Dick Grayson was some poor boy that rescues Vicki from a mugger. The Penguin and Catwoman were competing jewel thiefs. The Penguin seemed to steal more innocently, using an even larger array of umbrellas than DeVito did in the finalized film, whereas Catwoman murdered several people in cold blood to get what she wanted. Of course, Bruce and Vicki are still together, and Catwoman ends up falling in love with Batman. She find out that Bruce is Bats, tries to kill Vicki b/c she's jealous, and Vicki ends up killing Catwoman. The Penguin is put in Arkham, Bruce and Vicki get engaged, and the last thing we see is Batman and Robin shooting there bat-a-rangs and flying off into the night.

 

[batlovescatDC]

Oh, and I would've had it where Bruce is still getting over Vicki, b/c she left for him being Bats. He meets Selina and they fall for eachother. Batman and Catwoman end up having their thing. I wouldn't have changed the ending in any way shape or form. Although I would turn Shreck into Dent instead, and had Billy Dee Williams playing the role. (Basically a Dent that had been mentally corrupted from popularity, fame, fortune, and power). And I would have Batman succesfully save Dent from Catwoman's claws, but scar him in the process. But, of course, her looking at the Bat-signal while Bruce drives off with her precious cat... perfect ending wouldn't have changed it at all.


Interesting thing is WB is who pushed Penguin. Burton and Di Novi wanted to do Catwoman. Warner Bros. felt that The Penguin was the #2 villain right below The Joker and so when they were told that Burton was doing Catwoman they said they wanted Penguin too.