10 Movies That Spent Decades In Development Hell

Even by the 1980's, Adam West's camp interpretation from the classic kitschy TV show was still the first image that popped into most people's heads when they thought of Batman. Tim Burton's brooding, Gothic update of The Dark Knight still remains one of the most important blockbusters ever made, but the road to reinventing Bruce Wayne's costumed alter-ego on the big screen was hardly an easy one.

Probably on the back of witnessing West and Burt Ward reprise their signature roles in whatever the hell 1979 TV specials Legends of the Superheroes were supposed to be, producer Michael Uslan picked up the rights to the character from DC that very same year, looking to take the Caped Crusader back to his comic book roots in a darker, more grounded adaptation. Incredibly, Uslan's pitch was rejected by numerous studios because they wanted it to be more like the TV show that essentially turned one of popular culture's biggest icons into a joke.

Columbia Pictures, United Artists and Universal all turned down the chance to make a real Batman movie before Warner Bros. picked it up in 1980. And yet, it would still be almost a decade before the movie made it to the big screen.

The studio discarded at least ten drafts by ten different writers before Sam Hamm's script was finally approved in 1988, but by then fans were too upset by the prospect of Tim Burton directing Michael Keaton that the story was the least of their concerns. Suffice to say, things worked out pretty well in the end for everyone.