Batman Forever (1995)
New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz was paid $2,000 to write the four riddles that the Riddler uses to taunt Batman. He later said that he was disappointed that Val Kilmer’s hero solved them so easily.
The introduction of nipples to the Batsuit was a bone of contention not only among the fans. According to Jim Carrey, Batman co-creator Bob Kane - who served as a consultant on Batman , Batman Returns and Batman Forever - was “pissed off” by the addition.
Production was troubled by a moody Kilmer - who at one point didn’t talk to Joel Schumacher for two weeks - and a demanding Tommy Lee Jones, but the director called Jim Carrey a "gentleman".
Batman & Robin (1997)
Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone and Demi Moore were both considered for the role of Poison Ivy, which eventually went to Uma Thurman. Patrick Stewart and Anthony Hopkins could have been Mr Freeze, but director Joel Schumacher eventually chose ‘brawny’ over ‘classically trained’ and went with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Coolio has a brief cameo in Batman & Robin as a banker.
George Clooney has made no secret of his regrets about the film. He still keeps a picture of himself as Batman on his office wall as a reminder not to do films for purely commercial reasons.
Batman Triumphant
Joel Schumacher was originally in line to follow up Batman Forever and Batman & Robin with a third movie, Batman Triumphant .
Once upon a time scheduled for 1999, the film would have seen the return of George Clooney as the Caped Crusader.
Casting rumours including Nicolas Cage (the would-be star of another stalled superhero movie, Superman Lives ) as the Scarecrow and, stranger still, Madonna as Harley Quinn.
Leading ladies
Renne Russo was intended to star opposite Michael Keaton in Batman Forever as Dr Chase Meridian. When Val Kilmer was cast, Russo was replaced by Nicole Kidman, as the actress was deemed to old to play his love interest.
Keaton blocked the casting of his then girlfriend, Michelle Pfeiffer, as Vicki Vale in Batman, thinking it would be too awkward. Of course, she went on to star as Catwoman in Batman Returns .
Gemma Arterton, Kate Mara, Jessica Biel and Keira Knightley were all rumoured to have auditioned for the role of Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises before Anne Hathaway won out.
Christopher Nolan
The director decided against a second unit on Batman Begins and oversaw every shot on the 129 days of shooting.
Nolan was so obsessed with Cillian Murphy’s blue eyes that he kept finding reasons for the Scarecrow actor to take off his glasses during the filming of Batman Begins .
Before starting work on Batman Begins , Nolan invited key production members to a screening of Blade Runner , telling them that that was the way they would be making the movie.
Batman Begins (2005)
The little boy Batman meets in the narrows and who is later protected by Katie Holmes during the attack on Gotham was played by Jack Gleeson, who would grow up into Game of Thrones ’ tyrant Joffrey Baratheon.
Christian Bale lost his voice three times during filming thanks to his famously husky performance.
Christopher Nolan’s determination to avoid CGI included an attempt to use real bats on set. The experiment lasted one day before a decision was made to use visual effects.
Christian Bale
Christian Bale was rumoured to have auditioned for the role of Robin in Batman Forever , a claim which the actor has since rubbished. When confronted with the tall tale, he said that he “would never have bloody auditioned to play Robin”.
Bale’s gravelly Batman voice was actually enhanced with added gravel in post-production.
The actor was cast in Batman Begins shortly after he completed The Machinist , for which he had dropped 60 pounds to a frighteningly thin 120 pounds. He put on 100 pounds in muscle over four months, until Nolan decided he had actually grown too bulky.
IMAX
While shooting the chase scene in The Dark Knight , Christopher Nolan managed to break one of only four IMAX cameras in the world at the time. He repeated the trick in The Dark Knight Rises when Anne Hathaway’s stunt double hit the rig with her bike.
Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister wanted to shoot the whole of The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX format to avoid having to use 3D. 72 minutes of the film were shot in IMAX in the end, because they cameras were too noisy for shooting dialogue.
Tickets for the midnight premiere IMAX screenings in New York sold out six months in advance.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Shortly before the release of the Dark Knight DVD, the mayor of the Turkish city of Batman launched a lawsuit against the filmmakers claiming that they had not asked permission to use the name, and blaming them for unsolved murders and the high rate of suicide in the city. It did not get off the ground.
The film triggered 200 complaints in the UK, the most lodged in a decade. The BBFC estimated that 42% of all letters they received in 2008 were regarding The Dark Knight .
Writer David S Goyer had two film treatments ready before Batman Begins was even completed. These would eventually be combined into a single movie, which helps to explain its extreme length.
Heath Ledger
The late actor directed the two home videos through which the Joker delivers his ultimatums in The Dark Knight . Christopher Nolan was so impressed with Heath Ledger’s work on the first video that he left him to complete the second unsupervised.
For four months before filming began on the movie, Ledger lived in a hotel room where he kept a diary of the Joker’s thoughts. A list of the villain’s favourite things included "AIDS, landmines, geniuses suffering irreversible brain damage, brunch, and sombreros".
The Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious was one of Ledger’s inspirations for the Joker’s mannerisms.
