Bill Murray explains why Ivan Reitman’s Batman film never panned out
The Ghostbusters actor revealed that he and Eddie Murphy both wanted to play the role of the Caped Crusader
Aux News Bill Murray
In every generation, there is a Batman. As Robert Pattinson’s younger, emo Bruce Wayne glides onto screens, he joins an already esteemed group of actors who donned the suit and cape. There’s Adam West, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck to name a few. However, in another universe, there is an Ivan Reitman-directed Batman movie with Bill Murray as the Dark Knight and Eddie Murphy as his Boy Wonder, Robin.
With a revolving door of directors being considered for the 1980s production, the late comedy director Ivan Reitman was next in line for the Batman film due to the success of 1981's Stripes. However, in a recent interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Murray explains why his version of Batman never got to stalk the dark streets of Gotham City alongside Eddie Murphy’s Robin.
“I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman,” says Murphy when asked if him and Reitman every discussed the role. “That’s as far as that conversation went.”
The seed of a Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy Batman and Robin didn’t go much past the talking stages, and even Michael Uslan, who has produced every Batman feature film since attaining the films rights to the character in 1979, was left in the dark about it. “That was purposefully kept away from me,” he says with a chuckle in the same interview.
With both Murray and Murphy wanting to wear the Batman cape, there was a question of whether the roles could be switched but Murray wasn’t too into the idea. “I don’t wanna be the Boy Wonder to anybody,” Murray says. “Maybe much earlier when I was a boy. But it was too late for that by the ’80s. Also, I couldn’t do the outfit. Eddie looks good in purple, and I look good in purple. In red and green, I look like one of Santa’s elves. There was just a lot of vanity involved in the production. It wasn’t gonna happen.”
After moving on from the script, Reitman and Murray suffered no losses as their next endeavor was the blockbuster hit Ghostbusters. The offer to direct the Batman film was still on the table for Reitman, but he wasn’t ready for another expansive film. “He said, ‘I’m exhausted. I can’t do another big picture back-to-back. And the search started all over again,” explains Uslan.
Though a Bill Murray Batman seems very…inspired in retrospect, the film didn’t need to worry about that as Tim Burton took on the project and gave the cinematic world a legendary performance from Michael Keaton in the purplish suit. Gotham City has never been the same since.
59 Comments
Though a Bill Murray Batman seems very…Terrible. The word you’re looking for is terrible.
Murray’s action scenes would have looked like the ones with Murphy from the fake movie in a movie from Bowfinger.Fake Purse Ninjas!
Bill Murray as Batman may be the 2nd worst casting idea that I’ve ever heard, just after Eddie Murphy as Batman.But both pale in comparison to the idea of Eddie Murphy as Robin. I’m not opposed to the idea of casting a traditionally white character with a black actor, but let’s maaaaaybe not start with a young kid being taken in by a rich white man and put to work after his parents die?
I mean they still went and did it. At least Marlon Wayans got a great deal out of being cast as Robin and then dropped for Batman Returns.
“I’m not opposed to the idea of casting a traditionally white character
with a black actor, but let’s maaaaaybe not start with a young kid being
taken in by a rich white man and put to work after his parents die?”If this sounds like a bad idea to you, never watch Diff’rent Strokes.
“Never watch Diff’rent Strokes” is always good advice.
Marlon Wayans was originally cast as Robin in BATMAN RETURNS but they changed their minds at the last minute. They paid him 100 grand for his troubles.
Calling a grown Black man a “boy” doesn’t have any problematic baggage, no sir!
See also: the comics Captain America storyline in which a replacement Captain America (John Walker, the original version of the character from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) was going to call his grown African-American sidekick “Bucky”, just like the original Cap did with his (young, white) sidekick, until someone pointed out the obvious. (They changed it to “Battlestar”, and TFatWS had some fun with that.)
Considering the time frame (early 80s) few people would have complained.
Very few white people would have complained. I think black folks might have complained and had their complaints ignored by the media, leading to the perception that “few people” complained about things like this back then.
Murphy could have been a decent Bruce Wayne, as a millionaire playboy. Slightly unsure about Batman: on the one hand you just need to wear a hood while stuntmen punch people, on the other, I can’t imagine Murphy doing anything that low-key.
Oh, of course it seems like a terrible idea NOW… but in the eighties it was the most eighties idea ever.
It sounds like at that point it was going to be in the vein of the 60s series, wherein the casting makes sense.
And now I’m picturing Bruce Wayne taking in Billy Ray Valentine. . .
This was back when “put Eddie in it” meant an automatic greenlight. Ghostbusters, Star Trek 4, Best Defense (OK, that last one he did).
didn’t they made best defence first and then film an unrelated subplot that added murphy to the movie?or was that was the parenthesis meant and i missed the joke?
You’re correct. They actually filmed a scene where Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy meet but then they cut it.
I always wonder what the Eddie Murphy Trek 4 would be like where at the end the character who ended up taking Murphy’s place jumped into Kirk’s arms to get on the transporter beam.
while a bill muray batman sounds terrible, an ivan reitman batman sounds even worse.
If the idea was to modernize the 60’s Batman show, then I can totally see this casting…and honestly with Reitman behind the camera, would have been a total blast. Terrible Batman movie? Most likely. Comedy classic? About as likely.
“I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman,”
says Murphy when asked if him and Reitman every discussed the role.
I assume Murray said that rather than Murphy unless Murphy is currently in method training to play Elmo and is practicing referring to himself in the third person.
It’s too bad they couldn’t figure out some sort of compromise
I like Ivan Reitman, but his most successful stuff deals with working class heroes. I just don’t think that sensibility would translate into Batman.
Bill Murray should’ve played The Joker then.The crying on the inside kind of Joker I guess.
“Quick Change” is just a great, great movie. Have never understood why it is not more popular. Everyone in it is at the top of their game. A truly underrated gem.Street Barker:
Nude women! Nude women(Notices Bill Murray in full clown make up walking by)Street Barker:
Clowns Welcome! Clowns welcome!
Quick Change is also where most people first discovered the Tony Shalhoub. He took a character that could easily have been a stereotype and turned it into comedy gold.
Good point as I forgot to mention that. The interrogation scene when he pantomimes driving the bus is pure gold. Love that guy.
The only part of any of that casting that makes any sense whatsoever is Eddie Murphy as Batman. And for Robin…how about we go with a little Ralph Macchio?
The idea of Ivan Reitman directing a Batman movie with Bill Murray & Eddie Murphy seems normal compared to “we’re gonna get Tim Burton to direct BATMAN, with Michael Keaton as Batman, Jack Nicholson as the Joker, nobody as Robin, and the entire thing soundtracked by Prince.”
The eighties version of #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and “refilm The Last Jedi” were all the fanboys screaming about Keaton’s casting, until the movie came out and blew through box-office records, and suddenly there was much eating of words.
Not really. Sounds much worse.
”…when asked if him and Reitman every discussed the role.”I mean come ON
My fingers were quivering. Thank you for doing the work.
Also it was Murray who said it, not Murphy. This reads like it was bot-generated.
when you someone eat it
A proud tradition, upheld.
Ah, the good ol’ days.
And the questionable use of “panned out” in the headline.
The AV Club turned into sub-TMZ gibberish so gradually, I didn’t even notice
also the first part of that: “I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman,” says Murphy …”
i get it, you are typing about murray asking murphy, its easy to mix up those two names, but come on…murphy says he talked to murphy? i guess the chicago style of writing is dead…
I think I’m retired now. I just don’t give a shit
That’s cool, it’s voluntary anyway.
Now I’m going to keep doing it just to make you angry
Almost certain that you and I are on the same page with this one…
Is it cause bill was too busy beating and threatenimg to murder his wife?
bad ideas all the way around. Sheesh. I could see Bill Murray as the smart aleck reporter partner of Vicki Vale, or the Joker, or Riddler, but…As for Eddie.. Going back to the mid-80s, the major studios didn’t give a damn about any black male leading actors except for Eddie, and even then it was all about fish-out-of-water comedic action films where he could cut up and improv, but not really have a love interest. If the filmmakers were going to simply update the Adam West version, I guess he could have pulled it off, but of course, Mr. Uslan wanted to play this as the straight version. You could have had some potentially provocative dramatic material to make this Bruce Wayne a black man of his age whose wealthy parents were murdered at the height of civil rights social tumult.Well, we ended up with Pluto Nash, right? (sigh)…
Murphy and Murray is the 80’s comedy duo we never got, and I think one of the reasons is laid bare here: Their careers both went supernova around the same time, and so neither would ever be second banana to the other. Also, while their styles are intriguingly different, their role is the same: The iconoclast, the one who cuts down the established power structure, the one who probably knows they’re in a movie right now. Can’t really have two of those, which is why Murphy played well against frumpy white dudes who were also a bit more buttoned-up (Aykroyd, Martin).I also have a fuzzy memory of Murray doing a sketch on SNL with Murphy, and it being really odd? Like Murray is playing a super hyperactive coked-out guy (maybe himself) and Murphy is trying to calm him down. That definitely didn’t work for either of them.
I wonder if that was when Murray hosted not long after the original cast left, when the show became unwatchable (except for anything that Murray and Joe Piscopo were in) and everyone but Murray and Piscopo were fired after Charles Rocket said “fuck” live on the air. I didn’t see it, but read about it, and apparently Murray apologized to the other original cast members right at the end, for doing the show.
I can only assume that this idea was concocted in the period when everyone thought that Batman was a ridiculous idea and so, a la the Adam West late-’60’s version for television, your best approach was to make fun of it. We’ve come a long way since – now Batman is so very, very serious that he might just be smothered by his own existential gloom.
now Batman is so very, very serious that he might just be smothered by his own existential gloom
Exactly. And I often find myself wondering why so serious?
“I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman” says Murphy when asked if him and Reitman every discussed the role. “That’s as far as that conversation went.”…says Murray…if he and Reitman…ever discussed Maybe the AV Club let one too many editors go recently?
It very much sounds like it didn’t happen because it was an idiotic idea.
I like how the list of Batmen ignores George Clooney. Seems appropriate. He’s just lumped in with the “to name a few” actors. Is he the only one from the recent features not named?
Val Kilmer, from the other bad Batman film.
I knew I was forgetting one!
Holy Banana in the Tailpipe, Batman…
Gross. Still, he could’ve gotten in some prime drunken bullying during production.
Ivan Reitman? More like Ivan Wrongman. For this project anyway.