Orson Welles Batman Hoax
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| The Bat-Man | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Orson Welles |
| Written by | Bob Kane (character) |
| Starring | Orson Welles Joseph Cotten Edward G. Robinson Johnny Sheffield Conrad Veidt Marlene Dietrich |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) |  15 December 1947 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $ 10,000,000 |
The Orson Welles Batman Hoax was a fictional hoax perpetrated by comic book writer Mark Millar on the Internet in September 2003. It regarded critically-acclaimed Citizen Kane director, writer, producer, and star Orson Welles, who supposedly aimed to play and adapt the DC Comics character Batman onto the big screen.
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[edit] The story
On his column at comicbookresources.com [1], Millar wrote of historian Lionel Hutton, who was given the rights to the Welles' estate for his new biography on the director. Hutton allegedly discovered evidence of a planned Batman project that Welles hoped to film after completing The Stranger, before moving onto The Lady from Shanghai. As the story goes, he wanted to direct the film and star as Batman, and he supposedly had some pre-production pictures shot with the help of some friends. He began attending meetings with National Comics, the precursor of DC, in 1944 to agree on acquiring the film rights. A script was supposedly written, and he had drawn some design sketches of the Batsuit. [2] He offered the role of Two-Face to George Raft, Marlene Dietrich was cast as Catwoman, James Cagney as The Riddler and Basil Rathbone as The Joker. Humphrey Bogart was first offered the role of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, but he declined. However, the project stalled when executives at Columbia Pictures were against Welles casting himself as the Caped Crusader, and they wanted a more bankable star like Gregory Peck to play the role instead.
Welles' thirty-six page draft was supposed to be a direct adaptation of the grim and serious Batman. It started with the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne after leaving a cinema showing The Mark of Zorro. A few scenes later show Bruce Wayne as an adult having just became Batman. Most of the second act involves Batman at constant odds with Commisioner Gordon, and he is framed for a crime that the Joker committed. The last act involves him fighting his foes after being captured by Joker, Catwoman, Two-Face and Riddler in a prison they have assumed control of. Since this is Batman's origin, Robin is not involved in this story.
The story gained a considerable of online interest; even Harry Knowles, creator and webmaster of Ain't It Cool News, admitted that it was amazing.
| “ | "To think of it..That in all the history books on Batman, that it was never mentioned, whispered, or screamed at the top of their lungs...I'm stunned. Stunned."[3] | ” |
[edit] Fact versus fiction
The idea of an Orson Welles Batman project has been debunked as a work of pure fiction by many. According to Millar's article, there are a large number of flaws and misstatements that prove it is entirely fabricated. These include the following:
- Millar claimed Welles was in talks to make the movie with Columbia Pictures, who owned the rights and made the Batman serials, but at that time, he was working with RKO Studios and MGM from 1944 to the end of 1946.
- The actors mentioned above were under contract to different studios at that time. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Welles to try and get them released from their contracts in order to get them to make the film.
- Later interviews given by Welles, towards the end of his life, do not mention anything about this. Welles' friend and expert Peter Bogdanovich has never said a word related to the supposed planned film.
- Concerning the part about Peck doing a screen test in between production of films, he immediately went into production on Duel in the Sun after completing The Yearling. It is extremely unlikely he could have at least auditioned, since no film footage or photographs exist.
- Also, the character of the Riddler was not introduced until October 1948, which was four years after the supposed "negotiations" with National Comics and more than two years after Welles' alleged attempt to start pre-production. Nor did the character become popular with comic fans until the series Batman premiered.
- Most important of all, Lionel Hutton is fictional, and there has been no definite proof of his existence or his planned biography.
Perhaps the most damning fact was that in between The Stranger and The Lady From Shanghai, Welles was directing and performing in a stage play of Around the World in 80 Days with the Mercury Theatre for a three month period. Immediately after the play ended, he focused on the filming of Lady. Although the whole "project" was entirely fictional, Welles really enjoyed reading the Batman and Superman comic books of the period. Millar's article was probably inspired by the fact that Welles attempted to acquire the film rights to make a feature-film adaptation of The Shadow in 1946. Having voiced the character in the popular 1930s radio show, he aimed to play the title role and direct the film himself. This failed after he failed to find any interested financiers in the project.
[edit] Trivia
- Coincidentally, since it was said the studio wanted Gregory Peck for Batman, Alex Ross based his Kingdom Come Bruce Wayne on an old Peck and Superman on Christopher Reeve's physique and the younger Peck's features. Frank Miller had Wayne similarly sketched in his storyboards for Batman: Year One.
- After Millar's article was proven to be a hoax, a Youtube user created a fake movie trailer for the fictional movie Orson Welles Presents Batman. It was combined with archive footage from the Batman serials, Welles' movies Citizen Kane and The Third Man, and Tarzan's New York Adventure. Supposedly, the main plot of the faux-movie is Batman and a reluctant Commissioner Gordon waging war against the Penguin's mob, but the Joker complicates things by bombing a circus, resulting in Bruce Wayne taking in the orphaned acrobat Dick Grayson. The final product features Welles as Batman, Joseph Cotten as Gordon, Edward G. Robinson as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, Conrad Veidt as the Joker, Marlene Dietrich as Catwoman, and Johnny Sheffield as Dick Grayson/Robin. The idea of the Joker causing the death of the Flying Graysons was in the original Tom Mankiewicz spec script for Batman, and The Joker also masterminded the death of the Graysons in All Star Batman and Robin.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Mark Millar's Original Article
- Citizen Kane's Alter Ego
- 'The Bat-Man' Part 1 starring Orson Welles Extended Trailer
- 'The Bat-Man' Part 2 starring Orson Welles Extended Trailer
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