As the calendar creeps quickly towards Christmas Day on the 25th of December, we’re counting down the days with a special advent calendar of festive films, revealing a set of rare images for each chosen film to surprise and delight film fans. 

With the contagious Batman fever spreading across 2012, the Caped Crusader had to be included in this festive advent special. Although not a Christopher Nolan creation, nor a conventional Christmas flick, Tim Burton’s Gothic macabre Batman Returns (1992) deserves a mention this season for its nightmarish and wonderful atmosphere, which let’s not forget was set in the jolliest of seasons.

I’m sure many will agree that Batman Returns is the most successful sequel to Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989. In retrospect, you cannot forget the Gothic graphics and sharp style of the Batman (played by Michael Keaton) era prior to Nolan’s current reign. The casting was pure brilliance, with special credit to Danny DeVito as the mischievous misfit Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer (Anne who?) as the stunningly sexy Selina Kyle/Catwoman.

So here we are opening another door on our advent calendar to reveal 10 awesome images related to Batman Returns you’ve probably never seen…

10. Alternative Poster

With the current minimalist trend of less being more, we sometimes forget that this is not necessarily a new technique to drum up and tease interest in a major motion picture. Indeed, twenty years ago Warner Bros released this early poster that no doubt had Bat fans salivating at the prospect of a sequel to a movie that just a few years earlier had dominated the Hollywood summer blockbuster season like few others before it.

In the days before the internet and far less easy accessibility to the goings on in Hollywood, this for most would have been the first image they will have seen in magazines or in theatre lobbys of a new movie featuring The Caped Crusader.

The Batman silhouette, used as a symbolic emblem, sells the idea all on its own. It doesn’t even need a title for you to know who is returning.

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