The Film: The Batman The journey to making Batman in 1989 was by no means an easy one. For a long time nobody seemed at all interested in adapting the Dark Knight for the screen, despite super-producer Michael Uslans attempts. Exasperated at his failed attempts to get any traction for the film, Uslan simply formed BatFilm Productions and bought the characters adaptation rights, commissioning James Bond and Superman writer Tony Mankiewicz to write the first official screenplay, under the title The Batman in 1983. Mankiewicz used Batman: Strange Apparitions as his inspiration and brought in corrupt politician Rupert Thorne as a villain, who would kill The Joker (in place of the storys Hugo Strange) to find out the secret of Batmans identity, only to be haunted by the clown prince of crime. Elements of that haunting were later almost recycled by Joel Schumacher for Batman Unchained. There could also have been smaller roles for Doctor Phosphorous and Deadshot, given that they played key roles in the source. Sadly, that film wasnt meant to be. Despite wholesale changes to the script, Thorne almost made it into Tim Burtons Batman 6 years later, as it was originally he who hired Joe Chill to kill the Waynes, before Jack Palances Carl Grissom was added in to a later draft.
