Michael Uslan on BATMAN RETURNS

[Azrael]

Others might know better (if they care to share in opinions, I seriously doubt it), my guess is it needs people with access to rare material and ability to contact and interview people involved with the movies, and a kickstarter campaign. As far as I know, that's how The Death of Superman Lives was done. It wasn't made by WB.

[Silver Nemesis]

In the case of The Death of Superman Lives, I don't think Jon Schnepp's used any copyrighted material without the permission of the rights holders. It was Jon Peters' production company that developed Superman Lives, and Peters himself was involved in Schnepp's documentary. When it comes to behind-the-scenes FX footage and concept art, Schnepp's had permission from the artists who owned and created them to feature those materials in his film. Many of those artists were also interviewed for the movie.

I imagine it would be more complicated to produce a documentary or book about an intellectual property that was completed and owned by a big studio. You could probably produce an unofficial book containing essays and analysis, as indeed some authors have. But I'm not sure you'd be able to include pictures of actors and crew, or behind-the-scenes images, without getting permission from the appropriate parties. If you were to produce a book about the art and production design of Batman 89, you'd likely need permission from the estate of Anton Furst and also from Warner Bros. And they'd probably insist on keeping a share of the royalties, which is only fair considering it's an offshoot of their product that you'd be selling.

Considering Batman 89 won an Oscar for its set design, it's rather odd they didn't release a book on the subject back in the day. A wasted opportunity, really.

[thecolorsblend]

Considering Batman 89 won an Oscar for its set design, it's rather odd they didn't release a book on the subject back in the day. A wasted opportunity, really.

That makes two of us, actually. Star Wars had books out there featuring Peter Ellenshaw, Ralph McQuarrie and other artists. Such a thing was known to be marketable long before B89 came out.

I'm working under the assumption that WB knew B89 was a hit but obviously not as big a hit as Star Wars so there might've been potential loss with merchandising that stuff.

Then again, I don't think the post-release B89 stuff is much to write home about, especially that train wreck Toy Biz action figure line.