Billion Dollar Batman
Bruce Scivally
Language: English
Pages: 616
ISBN: 0615306411
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Since his creation in 1939, Batman has become one of the most popular characters in fiction. From his humble roots in dime comic books, he grew to become a serial hero, a frequent guest star on the Superman radio show, and then the star of his own explosively successful TV series, spawning a nationwide epidemic of Batmania. After Batman became a movie star, his thrilling exploits were no longer kid stuff-he was now a multinational conglomerate's biggest corporate asset. Billion Dollar Batman reveals the stories behind the story of one of the most lucrative and profitable media creations in history. Includes profiles of the people who guided Batman from Bright Knight to Dark Knight and revealing behind-the-scenes information about Batman serials, TV shows and films. Illustrated with photos of the actors who have brought Batman to life for seven decades.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Tunes into TV
Television Westerns: Six Decades of Sagebrush Sheriffs, Scalawags, and Sidewinders
co-production pact with Disney’s Hollywood Pictures, eventually claimed the script for $500,000, with the writers due to earn an additional $500,000 if a film was produced. Frank Marshall, producer of several Steven Spielberg movies, signed on to direct, and Sean Connery agreed to star. However, after Connery demanded a series of rewrites, the production stalled. Connery eventually moved on, and when Marshall then left for a deal at Paramount to direct Congo, the project was put on the back
barely able to detain them. Meanwhile, Batman gets the Joker on the deck, about to crush the life out of him by stepping on his windpipe. Superman pleads with him, saying if he’s going to do it, to first remove his mask, so he won’t pretend there’s some other part of him doing it. Batman removes his mask, and it appears he’s going to go through with it, but ultimately he can’t. Then Lex Luthor appears, disappointed in Batman for not killing the Joker, and for not completely killing Superman (the
entertaining new series inspired by characters from DC Comics. The show may not please purists who have followed the comics, but the series is stylish fun calculated to please WB’s young audience.”110 However, though the show got off to a good start, by the time the third episode aired the ratings had dropped 60%.111 They remained low for the rest of the season. By mid-November, the WB informed Tollins/Robbins Productions that they were not going to order any further shows past the original
arts.138 “For Batman, everything is about function, it’s about the most effective way of doing something, so we needed a style that is brutal, economical and real,” said Nolan.139 “We’ve gotten comfortable seeing fighting portrayed in this graceful, dance-like fashion to the point where the violence loses its threat. I wanted to take it back to a grittier place, where you feel the punches a bit more.”140 Nolan and Forman decided on the Keysi Fighting Method, also known as KFM, a relatively new
Wayne and Batman. The actual recording of the pilot broadcast has been lost to history, but the script remains, though it indicates no date and it is unclear who authored it. Called “The Case of the Drowning Seal,” it based its interpretation of the character more on Columbia’s movie serial than the comic books. The World War II story had Bruce Wayne as a government agent, on the trail of the Nazi spies that killed Robin Grayson’s parents, who were FBI agents (yes, Dick Grayson’s name was changed