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Secrets of the Batman Returns Scripts - Screenwriter DANIEL WATERS Interview



Batman Returns screenwriter Daniel Waters joins us for a candid talk on his earlier versions of the script and the unmade Catwoman spin-off! Learn more about what things he wished remained in the final film, what things he hates about the movie that weren’t in his drafts, the deleted roles of Robin and Harvey Dent, the real origins of Max Shreck, and who he envisioned joining Michelle Pfeiffer in her Catwoman spin-off.


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Chapters

0:00 Daniel Waters Introduction

We asked Daniel Waters to debunk the popular Internet rumor that Max Shreck was originally written to be Harvey Dent and would've gotten scarred from the electrical burns by Catwoman.


Ben did a video essay about this here:



0:13 Episode Introduction

Ben was fortunate enough to meet Daniel Waters at the 30th Anniversary event run by Nostalgic Nebula. For coverage of that, check that out here:


BIG THANKS to Nostalgic Nebula and everyone involved as this episode would not have been possible without meeting these gentlemen at the event!


Our research on Daniel Waters included previous interviews he gave, including ones to Money Into Light:


And the Locus Files Podcast:


You can read about Matt Reeves's affection for Batman Returns here: https://nerdist.com/article/matt-reeves-batman-returns-dark-knight/


8:09 Meeting Tim Burton & Daniel Waters's Beetlejuice 2 Pitch


11:10 The Comic Book Influence on Batman Returns

The images of the comics that we showed Daniel Waters come from a Batman Online article that Ben helped contribute to years ago:


28:13 Scenes That He Wished Were in the Movie

You can check out the May 20, 1991 draft by Daniel Waters here, though there were definitely drafts written before and after that have not made it to the Internet: https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/batman-returns_early.html


We covered this in our older episode:



As Ben acknowledges later in the episode, he wasn't originally kind to this draft when reading it for this episode in 2019, turned off by the amount of self awareness and satire. But rereading it for the 30th Anniversary in 2022 led to a better understanding (and Waters forgives Ben on the air later!).


32:45 The Deleted Role for Robin

The Fantazone Magazine interview with Waters, where he mentions Robin as a street kid, comes from this interview:


36:18 Was Max Shreck Based on Anyone in Real Life?


40:40 Max Shreck Was Never Harvey Dent & Dent's Real Role


42:17 The Deleted Alexander Knox Death


48:17 What Was Deleted From The Wesley Strick Rewrites


A later draft of Wesley Strick's revision of Daniel Waters's script is online:


It, however, doesn't contain the details that Waters described in this interview!


57:58 Break

Check out our link for Barkbox here.


1:02:38 Visual Versions of Daniel Waters's Cut Ideas

We previously showed the Batman Store in our Concept Art:


You can learn more about that episode and our sources from it here: https://www.superherostuffpod.com/post/the-unused-concept-art-of-batman-returns


1:06:20 Batman's Deleted Arc in the Film


1:09:27 The Deleted World's Fair Hideout & the Bat Creeps


1:11:06 The Obscure Robin Storyboard & Vehicle Concept Art

The rare concept art of Robin's vehicle can be found in the Batman 80th Anniversary book Batman: The Definitive History of The Dark Knight In Comics, Film, And Beyond by Andrew Farago and Gina McIntyre. You can get it here using the affiliate link of our store:



1:15:38 Daniel Waters on The Batman & Detective Work

You can find the tweet (and Daniel Waters's twitter) yourself here: https://twitter.com/troubledwatersx/status/1501609535890341893


1:17:36 The Catwoman Spin-Off & Who Could've Joined Pfeiffer in the Cast

The script to Catwoman is online (though Waters hates that it's there): http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/catwoman.txt


We covered this as well on our show:



Ben predicted that Waters had Ann Margret in mind for the role of Selina's mother in this episode:



1:25:27 The Catwoman Spin-Off Foreshadowing The Boys


1:27:33 Introducing The Batman 89 Comic to Daniel Waters

The Joe Quinones cover that caught Waters's attention is from issue 5. Ben did a video essay on that issue here:




1:30:50 MISC Section: Daniel Waters & Other Superhero Movies?


1:35:13 The Demolition Man Sequel??


1:39:58 Final Wrap-Up: Ben's Thank You to Daniel Waters


1:42:17 Fan Comments


1:44:41 Closing: Fan Shout outs and Social Media Promotion



Big thanks to our research assistant Dan Yamat for providing the visuals for this YouTube experience, as well as the usual QC and chapter time codes.

Thumbnail by Dan as well

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Website: http://www.benwanwriter.com ZACHARY JACKSON BROWN



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