3. Alfred Hitchcock's Catwoman
Sorcha EdwardWho better to handle the ultimate comic book femme fatale than The Master himself? The twist on Hitchcocks Catwoman would be having Bruce Wayne (here played by Cary Grant) blurring the lines between stalker and vigilante as he observes and investigates social climber Selina Kyle (Grace Kelly). Wayne first encounters Selina at a charity fundraiser ball held for the young dilettantes of Gotham. He is beguiled by the social mobility of the class defying Kyle, but on further investigation discovers her to be an expert jewel thief going by the name Catwoman. His pursuit of the feline thief soon leads to him discover she has links to a greater crime organisation. It perhaps sounds like Hitchcocks Batman rather than Catwoman, with Wayne being the protagonist, but the focal point of the film is all Selina, the duality of her contrasting identities drawing upon the great Hitchcock blondes from Kim Novak in Vertigo to Kelly herself in Marnie. Grant would make for an inquisitive and slightly paranoid Bruce Wayne/Batman, torn by his burgeoning feelings for Selina and his duty to bring down Catwoman. Rounding out the cast would be David Niven as Alfred (who almost played the part in Tom Mankiwiecz's unmade early-eighties version) and British actor Roger Livesey (A Matter of Life and Death) as Commissioner Gordon. Hitchcock could even make his signature cameo appearance in a newspaper clipping as the mugshot of captured criminal Oswald Cobblepot AKA The Penguin.