Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman is heralded as one of the greatest superhero movies of all time, but according to the screenwriter for Burton’s Batman Returns, he isn’t a fan at all.
Daniel Waters, the man who wrote the screenplay for the hit 1992 sequel, recently spoke with IndieWire, where he revealed that he thinks the 1989 Batman “sucks.”
In a separate interview with World of Reel, Waters went more into detail on just why he didn’t like the 1989 Batman, and apparently, he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t a fan. Waters said that Burton also didn’t love the movie and also took digs at the scene of Jack Nicholson as the Joker dancing up the stairs to a Prince song.
“[Tim Burton] was not crazy about Batman. And I wasn’t crazy about it either,” said Waters. “It had great production design and all that, but I didn’t like the movie…That scene where Jack [Nicholson’s] going up the stairs to a s— Prince song, spray painting art is the height of anti-entertainment.”
Waters’ original plans for Batman Returns took shots at Batman
Waters also briefly touched on what his original plans for 1992’s Batman Returns were. The writer revealed that the film was originally set to open with a Batman logo, only to pan out and reveal an in-universe store selling Batman merchandise, a joke at the expense of how big of a merchandising juggernaut the original Batman film was.
However, Waters reveals that star Michael Keaton ended up convincing him to cut the section from the film.
“[Michael] Keaton said, ‘This is very clever. Cut it,’” Waters recalled.
