Interesting facts about the film "Batman Returns" (16 photos)

Shots from the filming and interesting facts about the film "Batman Returns" directed by Tim Burton. The cast includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken and Danny DeVito.





At least half of Warner Bros.' territory. was occupied by the Gotham City scenery. Moreover, the sets were mobile and changed frequently between shooting days. Because of this, Michelle Pfeiffer got lost every day on the way to filming.



Stan Winston said that one day his team was collecting mechanical penguins after a day of filming and discovered that one of the live penguins was sleeping, cuddled up to the mechanical one.





Tim Burton felt uncomfortable watching Christopher Walken play Max Schreck. The director explained it this way: “This man scares me to death.”



Several changes were made to the Batsuit, including the color scheme and logo on the chest plate. At Michael Keaton's request, a zipper was added to the pants.

The suit was so tight for Michelle Pfeiffer that she often couldn't hear her own voice. Tim Burton had to tell her to lower her voice because she would often shout out dialogue rather than just say it.



Neither Tim Burton nor Michael Keaton were pre-signed to star in the sequel. Burton agreed to make the film only after the script satisfied all his demands, and Keaton - after a serious increase in salary (he received $11 million for the second film) and Burton's assurances that it would be a standalone film, and not a direct sequel.



During the six months of filming, Michelle Pfeiffer changed sixty costumes, each of which cost $1,000.

For the role of Catwoman, the actress trained for two hours a day in a kickboxing gym for six months. She also did yoga, weight lifting and karate. She also trained with a 12-foot damask steel for three months. Pfeiffer called the role one of her most “challenging,” and critics called it one of her most “iconic.”



One of the photographs in Max Schreck's office shows him with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who later played Mr. Freeze in the film "Batman and Robin."



Penguin's army consisted of real penguins, actors in fiberglass suits, robotic puppets controlled by puppeteers, and computer animation.



To maintain the secrecy of Danny DeVito's character, he was forbidden to talk about the makeup to anyone outside the set, including family members. However, after filming began, photographs of the actor in character appeared in one of the tabloid newspapers.



Despite the information leak, the makeup had the desired effect on the audience and even on the colleagues on the set. "Nobody talked to Danny on set because he scared everyone," Tim Burton said.



"I don't know if it was his usual way of working, but there was a moment when he just got into the role and became completely this character who was completely antisocial, who had been out of his element for too long. Danny was one hundred percent immersed in the transformation ".





The final shot of the film, in which Catwoman looks at Batman's signal, was added after filming had ended, just a few weeks before the premiere. The shot had to be shot on a day off with stunt double Michelle Pfeiffer. The cost of this single frame was $250,000.

In the third part that Burton planned to make, PiNguin was supposed to reappear as a hallucination caused by the fear gas that Scarecrow released.



Tim Burton named Alan Moore's The Killing Joke as his favorite Batman comic. In this story, the Joker hires a group of side show performers to carry out his evil plans. The movie "Batman Returns" contains a reference to this comic. In it, Shrek, waking up after being kidnapped, finds himself surrounded by circus performers - just like Commissioner Gordon (in the comics), waking up, finds himself in an equally nightmarish situation.



After the release of the film, Tim Burton was in negotiations for the third part, but at the Warner Bros. studio. The director was considered "too dark and strange" and was replaced by Joel Schumacher.

The film contains numerous references to the culture of the Weimar Republic, which existed in Germany from 1919 to 1933. The Penguin's outfit and appearance are based on the title character from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and much of the film's set design is inspired by the same film. The villain is named after Max Schreck, the actor best known for the horror film Nosferatu: Symphony of Terror. Schreck invites Penguin to organize the "Reichstag fire" - an act of terrorism that the Nazi Party used as a pretext to seize power and dissolve the Weimar Republic.



On the left is a still from “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, on the right is from “Batman Returns”