Batman 1946 by Orson Welles - What if?

According to a widely-believed internet rumor, master filmmaker Orson Welles himself once planned to make a dark, film noirish big screen adaptation of the Caped Crusader more than a decade before Tim Burton was even born. Though this speculation has since been proven to be a hoax, it remains an enormously fascinating idea.

Meshing the coming attractions of Citizen Kane with the 1943 Batman serial, I have endeavored to produce an example of what the trailer for such a film might have looked like.

Music by Bernard Herrmann

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Batman
• Dark
• Knight
• Detective
• Joseph
• Cotten
• Ray
• Collins
• Everett
• Sloane
• Agnes
• Moorehead
• Bernard
• Herrmann
• Mercury
• Theater
• Columbia
• Pictures
• Two-Face
• Bob
• Kane
• DC
• Comics

[DrN0OB]

Sigh, it's really sad that I know where most of the footage came from. The Batman T.V. show was originally black and white. In the pilot episode batman had long ears which they changed because the audience that previewed it said the character looked like the Devil.

[Skull10]

@DrN0OB The Batman footage wasn't taken from a television show. It was taken from the theatrical serial.

[pagano60]

The sad thing is that if Orson Welles were, in fact, working in Hollywood today, directing the next installment of the Batman franchise would be the best project that he could hope for. As action films, Christopher Nolan's Batman movies are pretty good, but I don't think that Welles would be allowed to work on today's equivalents of "Citizen Kane," "The Magnificent Ambersons," or "Touch of Evil." Where are those equivalents, anyway?

[Hudsucker94]

Rumour was, They were gonna get James Cagney to play the Joker. The more I think about it, the more I think how awesome that would have been....

[FetaCheese222]

@Skull10 No! Don't do that man. Sound quality is everything.

[FetaCheese222]

@pagano60 There are no equivalents because there will only ever be one Orson Welles. There are however, still wonderful and unique movies being made. Look at David Fincher's or the Coen brothers' work. And there will only ever be one David Fincher and one Joel Coen and one Ethan Coen, and the same will be true for the next generation of great filmmakers.

[TheRokkiephantomlove]

@Hudsucker94 hi bats you dirty rat hohahaha

[Skull10]

@TheDrYes The one thing I wish I would have taken the time to do is put the music track through a filter so that it sounds vintage.

[TheDrYes]

@Skull10 well it looksa great for an hours work

[Skull10]

@TheDrYes I could have been a lot more elaborate had I taken the time. I only put about an hour of work into this one.

[TheDrYes]

@Skull10 actually clips from the man who laughed (after watching it) would only look slightly out of place but i think you could have pulled it off though personally i wouldve liked to see basil rathbone in the role and conrad veidt as ra's al ghul (if the character was created back then and not in the 70s)

[Wh3nYour3Strang3]

with Dwight Frye as the Joker

[bitzofdataz]

@DrN0OB Yes, but is he a genius or a madman?