This week we're back with one last issue of Starlog - this time an interview with Robert "Jeep" Swenson, who played Bane and sadly died in August 1997, two months after the film opened. Interesting little detail that originally the character didn't have any lines in the script, and they were added by Joel in the edit.
The second part of Starlog 240's coverage is an interview with director Joel Schumacher who tries to be diplomatic about the change of Batman star from Val Kilmer to George Clooney.
The end of the article has some interesting notes that Mark Protosevich had already been assigned the job of writing Batman 5 before Batman & Robin opened. I believe this script (which fans tend to refer to as Batman Triumphant) has never been leaked and may not have even been finished which is a shame because it would have been fascinating to see where Joel would have gone with another Batman film. Supposedly Man Bat and Scarecrow were going to be featured.
Back to Starlog magazine this week - an interview with production designer Barbara Ling along with a treasure trove of concept art - even a couple of early sleeker versions of the Batmobile (before toy manufacturer Kenner gave their input).
This week we've got a couple of articles from Film Review magazine (yup that's the title) that came out in May 1997. At the time very little was known about the film other than the trailer and some stills.
Some interesting bit to note. The first article suggests that Patrick Stewart was never considered to play Mr Freeze - it was purely a bit of "fan casting". However X-Files actor David Duchovny did do a screen test to play Batman (going so far as to try on the suit). Another bit of gossip that the article includes is the speculation that Michelle Pfeiffer would might have a cameo as Catwoman - which is the first and only time I've heard this.
The second article is an interview with George Clooney who is charmingly self deprecating about taking on the role of Batman from Val Kilmer. Reading these interviews now is a little bit of case of spot the awkward quote. In this interview George says he's hoping that he won't be "the first one to screw [Batman] up."
This time we're with Starlog with an in-depth interview with producer Peter MacGregor-Scott who talks through the production while they were filming. Interesting to note that he acknowledges that the film is lighter but insists that it isn't "Adam West Batman." I don't know Peter.
