Directors you'd like to see make a Batman film

[eledoremassis02]

I think Wong Kar Wai would make a rather interesting Batman film

Tony Leung would make a pretty smooth Bruce Wayne if he did an elsewords take on the character

[The Laughing Fish]

My choice is David Fincher. He has that gloom and grit that could definitely fit for a Batman film. Albeit in an R-rated film.

[thecolorsblend]

- David Fincher (ideally, he would direct a live action adaptation of Prey, from Legends Of The Dark Knight)

- Eighties-era Robert Zemeckis

- Matrix-era Wachowskis (I'm imagining something even more kinetic and bonkers than even Schumacher)

- Baz Luhrmann (oh, you thought the Wachowskis would be f**king bonkers?)

- Sam Raimi (ideally, something adapted directly from 1939-1941 Golden Age comics)

- Steven Spielberg (ideally, something adapted from late Sixties/early Seventies Bronze Age comics)

- Eighties-era John McTiernan

- Martin Scorsese (cold day in hell, I know, but a boy can dream)

- Nineties-era James Cameron

- Frank Darabont (ideally, a series of movies based on Strange Apparitions)

- Ridley Scott (ideally, something that includes Batgirl. And maybe Brother Eye?) (Plus, I'd like to see another European filmmaker's take on the material)

- Robert Rodriguez (in Sin City/digital backlot style)

- Guy Ritchie

- Stanley Kubrick (if mortality was no object) (Ego seems like an obvious thing for him to adapt)

- Nineties-era Alex Proyas

- Scott Hicks (this comes exclusively from the gorgeous Snow Falling On Cedars)

- Eighties-era Paul Verhoeven (ideally, a live action adaptation of TDKR since it's such an obvious fit)

[The Dark Knight]

Tarantino would be wild. Imagine him handling characters like Two-Face. Extended dialogue scenes with simply a gun and his coin.

[eledoremassis02]

- David Fincher (ideally, he would direct a live action adaptation of Prey, from Legends Of The Dark Knight)

- Eighties-era Robert Zemeckis

- Matrix-era Wachowskis (I'm imagining something even more kinetic and bonkers than even Schumacher)

- Baz Luhrmann (oh, you thought the Wachowskis would be f**king bonkers?)

- Sam Raimi (ideally, something adapted directly from 1939-1941 Golden Age comics)

- Steven Spielberg (ideally, something adapted from late Sixties/early Seventies Bronze Age comics)

- Eighties-era John McTiernan

- Martin Scorsese (cold day in hell, I know, but a boy can dream)

- Nineties-era James Cameron

- Frank Darabont (ideally, a series of movies based on Strange Apparitions)

- Ridley Scott (ideally, something that includes Batgirl. And maybe Brother Eye?) (Plus, I'd like to see another European filmmaker's take on the material)

- Robert Rodriguez (in Sin City/digital backlot style)

- Guy Ritchie

- Stanley Kubrick (if mortality was no object) (Ego seems like an obvious thing for him to adapt)

- Nineties-era Alex Proyas

- Scott Hicks (this comes exclusively from the gorgeous Snow Falling On Cedars)

- Eighties-era Paul Verhoeven (ideally, a live action adaptation of TDKR since it's such an obvious fit)

I wonder how a 90's Alex Proyas would of worked as a Burton replacement is Returns didn't scare as many people as it did.

[The Joker]

Paul Thomas Anderson (either a deep character study possibly taking place entirely in 1939, or something more unorthodox that takes place over 1939-1945. Inspired by the original 1943 serial where Bruce, by the midpoint, gets found out and subsequently recruited by the U. S. government as a secret agent to take on Axis saboteurs for the finale.)

1980's era Michael Mann with Batman might have been fun. I'm thinking something along the lines of 1986's Manhunter. A very '80's movie.

[thecolorsblend]

This might be controversial for some. But I've been imagining what a Hammer Studios Batman film produced in the late Fifties might've been like. I assume that the director most likely would've been Terence Fisher.

No idea who would've played Batman. But I'll wager that Robin most likely would've been eliminated from the script and his role more or less filled by Alfred, played by Peter Cushing, of course. Christopher Lee probably would've popped up in there somewhere too. Commissioner Gordon, perhaps?

Most Hammer films were produced on (for their time) low budgets so I think their Batman script would've emphasized detective work and character drama over big action sequences.

Thoughts?

[Kamdan]

This might be controversial for some. But I've been imagining what a Hammer Studios Batman film produced in the late Fifties might've been like.

Batman '89 is very Hammer influenced.

[Gotham Knight]

I don't know too many active directors I'd like to see tackle a Batman film. I'd like to see a Hitchcock Batman. I'd love to have seen a F. W. Murnau Batman. I would love for Sam Raimi to get his crack at it. Federico Fellini, Terry Gilliam, Richard Donner, James Mangold, Mark Romanek, hell, I think everybody would like to see what Spielberg would have done with it circa 80-00s.

[Silver Nemesis]

This might be controversial for some. But I've been imagining what a Hammer Studios Batman film produced in the late Fifties might've been like. I assume that the director most likely would've been Terence Fisher.

No idea who would've played Batman. But I'll wager that Robin most likely would've been eliminated from the script and his role more or less filled by Alfred, played by Peter Cushing, of course. Christopher Lee probably would've popped up in there somewhere too. Commissioner Gordon, perhaps?

Most Hammer films were produced on (for their time) low budgets so I think their Batman script would've emphasized detective work and character drama over big action sequences.

Thoughts?

Something like this wouldn't have been entirely outside the realms of possibility. Not if Hammer had optioned the rights in the late fifties or early sixties, back when Batman was under threat of cancellation and before the 1966 wave of Batmania gave the franchise a massive shot in the arm. One of Hammer's rivals, Amicus Studios, had success adapting EC's Tale from the Crypt and Vault of Horror into movies, and Hammer Studios itself was at one point developing a movie based on the Vampirella comics that would have starred Caroline Munro and Peter Cushing.

A Hammer Batman picture is an interesting prospect. I feel like Batman would really need to have been played by an American. Hammer generally couldn't afford big American stars, but they did occasionally nab US actors in lead roles. For example, Brian Donlevy in Quatermass I & II, Dean Jagger in X the Unknown, Bette Davis in The Nanny and The Anniversary, Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C., and Richard Widmark in To the Devil a Daughter. Ideally, they'd have needed several US actors to play the leads in a Batman film.

But if for the sake of argument we're casting a Hammer Batman film using the studio's regular repertoire of actors, then here are some suggestions.

Batman: Oliver Reed

Reed appeared in nine Hammer films and later narrated a documentary series on the studio. He was mean, intense and totally unconvincing as a teetotaller, but he's the only young Hammer star I can think of who might have had the right physicality to play a serviceable Bruce Wayne.

Alfred: Peter Cushing

Who else? My favourite actor of all time, Cushing had that wiry-yet-badass presence that was perfect for Bruce's guardian. A younger Cushing also would have made a good Jonathan Crane.

Gordon: André Morell

Morell starred in numerous early Hammer films, including The Camp on Blood Island, The Plague of the Zombies and The Mummy's Shroud. But it's his performance as Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles that convinces me he would have made an effective Gordon.

Catwoman: Caroline Munro

One of the most beautiful English actresses of the era, Munro was Hammer's first choice to play Vampirella and she would've been great as Selina Kyle.

Joker: Vincent Price

Ok, I'm cheating here since Price never actually appeared in a Hammer film. But he should have done. In real life he was close friends with both Cushing and Lee, and the three of them collaborated on numerous projects together. Price starred in many British horror films (Witchfinder General, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theatre of Blood, to name but a few), and he also starred in Roger Corman's Poe cycle, which was basically America's answer to Hammer (I view Hammer's work in the UK, Corman's work in the US and Mario Bava's work in Italy as part of the same cinematic gothic horror movement). Price, Cushing and Lee were the three biggest horror stars of that era, and I reckon Egghead would have been perfect as the Hammer Joker.

Poison Ivy: Hazel Court

Court's husband was American and because of this she spent quite a lot of time in the US where she starred in three of Roger Corman's Poe films (Premature Burial, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death). Back in Britain she was also appearing in Hammer movies. She was one of the top scream queens of that era and was easily beautiful enough to play Poison Ivy. Ingrid Pitt might also have been a good pick for Ivy.

Mad Hatter: Miles Malleson

Malleson was typically cast in comic relief roles, but I could see him playing a more light-hearted version of Tetch.

Clayface: Boris Karloff

Karloff never acted in a Hammer movie, but he did appear in contemporaneous gothic horror films made by Roger Corman and Mario Bava. And since Basil Karlo was partly based on him, I think he'd have been the ideal actor to play the Hammer Clayface.

Hugo Strange: Herbert Lom

Lom starred in Hammer's version of The Phantom of the Opera. For some reason I can see him as Strange.

Solomon Grundy: Dave Prowse

Hammer's go to actor for hulking monsters.

The Monk: Christopher Lee

The Monk was a vampire, and Lee was no stranger to playing those. He also played the title character in Hammer's Rasputin the Mad Monk, so he seems like a natural fit for the part.

Gotham City itself would have looked like a much smaller, cheaper version of the Batman Returns Gotham, or perhaps the European-style Gotham from Batman & Dracula: Red Rain. They probably would have built one tiny street on a back lot and then relied heavily on matte paintings to make the city appear larger (on the trivia front, Hammer matte artist Ray Caple later worked on both Superman: The Movie and Batman '89). Wayne Manor would have appeared lavishly gothic, and the villain would have had a suitably creepy hideout.

I wonder if Mario Bava might have been persuaded to direct it. He was directing Hammer-esque gothic horror movies in Italy at the time, some of which starred Christopher Lee, and he'd had prior experience adapting a comic book in the form of Danger: Diabolik (1968). In addition to being a big Hammer fan, Tim Burton has also cited Bava as one of his major influences. I think his distinctive style would have been well suited to a Batman movie.

As far as the script goes, it would have been great if they could have got American writer Richard Matheson to pen the screenplay. Matheson did an excellent job adapting Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer in 1968. I rate that as Hammer's finest movie and a rare example of a screen adaptation that's superior to the book on which it's based. In addition to writing for Hammer, Matheson also wrote scripts for Roger Corman's Poe cycle. He would've been the perfect screenwriter to tackle Batman at the time.

For music, a generic Hammer score would have sufficed. I've pointed this out before in other threads, but I'll mention once again that the theme from Justice League was ripped off from the Hammer movie Twins of Evil (1971).

Another DCAU Hammer connection can be found in the Batman: The Animated Series episode 'Avatar', which begins with a prologue taking place in the 1890s where an archaeologist, clearly modelled on a young Cushing, enters an ancient Egyptian tomb and discovers a cursed artefact within. This echoes the opening act of The Mummy (1959).

Then there's the Bronze Age comic story 'Heart of a Vampire' (Detective Comics Vol 1 #455, January 1976), in which the villainous Gustav Decobra was modelled on Christopher Lee's Dracula.

Yes, the Hammer Batman connections run deep and a Hammer Batman adaptation could have been very entertaining.