Batman Returns' Daniel Waters Wanted To Make A Catwoman Spinoff Like The Boys
Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" is one of the more unusual blockbusters of its era. Following the massive, massive success of his 1989 "Batman," Burton was seemingly given a lot more creative leeway with his sequel, transforming the world of Batman into a noir carnival nightmare of hopelessness and kink. "Returns" saw the Dark Knight (Michael Keaton) facing off against the sewer-dwelling creep the Penguin (Danny DeVito) and beginning an unhealthy flirtation with the mentally unwell Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer).
Burton's rendition of Catwoman may be the best Batman villain to have been depicted in live-action. She was unbalanced and terrifying, using her newfound mindset as a tool for liberation. It's no coincidence that her costume is a skintight leather vinyl costume with a corset and a whip. This was Catwoman as a horror movie dominatrix. She had more in common with the Cenobites from "Hellraiser" than anything from a Batman comic book. Sadly, I cannot find any evidence, but I recall hearing in 1992 that sex workers began receiving a massive influx of Catwoman requests following the release of "Batman Returns."
Pfeiffer's performance was admired by the world's "Batman" fans, and there was briefly some buzz throughout the industry that Pfeiffer would star in a solo "Catwoman" movie. Sadly, "Batman Returns," while a hit, wasn't the overwhelming marketing sensation that Warner Bros. was hoping for — it was too dark and kinky to sell Burger King toys — and the next "Batman" movie shifted directors and became more colorful and fun. "Catwoman" was taken off the slate.
A recent report by IndieWire, however, found that the canceled "Catwoman" — to have been written by Daniel Waters and directed by Burton — might have been a Jacques Tourneur-like black-and-white horror movie, and it sounds awesome.
'Catwoman' via 'Cat People'
Daniel Waters appeared at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd. in December of 2023 to talk about "Batman Returns," likely in response to its new-ish status as a Christmas classic. Waters noted that both he and Tim Burton wanted to make a "Catwoman" film starring Michelle Pfeiffer, but he felt that he and the director had very different ideas as to what it was to be.
Waters' vision of "Catwoman" was to take the villainess out of Gotham City and move her to a fantastical version of Los Angeles, reworked to bear Burton's signature Gothic aesthetic. There, she was to encounter three superhero characters who were secretly horrible people. In his words:
"I wanted to make a 'Batman' movie where the metaphor was about 'Batman.' So I had her move to a Los Angeles version of Gotham City, and it's run by three a**hole superheroes. It was 'The Boys' before 'The Boys.' But he got exhausted reading my script."
Note that the 1990s was a prime time to deconstruct the superhero genre. Burton's "Batman" films were dark and strange and didn't possess the color and bright thrills of the 1966 "Batman" TV series nor the boldness of the 1978 "Superman" film. It was also the decade that provided broad superhero spoofs like "The Tick," "Freakazoid!," and "Mystery Men." No one was interested in taking superheroes at face value, so a pointed takedown of three a-hole superheroes at the hands of a twisted, kinky Catwoman would have felt completely appropriate.
Burton, however, seemingly wanted to make a smaller, more intimate movie.
The Tim Burton version
Waters noted that Burton "wanted to do an $18 million black and white movie, like the original 'Cat People,' of Selina just lowkey living in a small town." One cannot deny that would have been interesting. Imagine something along the lines of Burton's "Edward Scissorhands," which featured a wild-haired, mechanical fleshapoid with scissors for hands who moves into an exaggerated version of suburban 1950s mid-America. What would happen to the Douglas Sirk-like housewives of a small town when confronted with a vicious kinkmonger like Catwoman? One can imagine it.
Both Burton's version and Waters' version sound great, by the way. It would be difficult to choose which one to make. It helps that neither the writer nor the director gave much thought to the overarching mythology of Batman comics and fealty to the source material. Those sorts of nerdy concerns wouldn't come into vogue for a few years yet.
Waters noted that "Catwoman" never came to fruition because "Batman Returns" was ultimately too weird. He also noted that, given the sheer volume of Batman media made since 1992, it has become a mere drop in the bucket, appreciated specifically because it's weird. Water explained:
"The whole thing about 'Batman Returns' is we got attacked by Batman fans because they thought, 'This is only the second Batman movie, what the f*** are you doing? You're already going off-road.' [...] Now there's like 50 Batman movies, and it's like, 'Hey. That was pretty interesting.'"
Would a Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman film be made now? Given that the superhero genre is currently in a state of rapid contraction, probably not. That ship has sailed.