Originally, Warner Bros. had intended to film Batman entirely at its studio in Burbank, California. The intense publicity and paparazzi interest in the picture led to Warners moving production to Pinewood Studios in the U.K. While this added new issues of how to deal with Jack’s L.A.-centric demands, it afforded the production some privacy.
The privacy would be short lived. Paparazzi tried to bribe crewmembers to take pictures of Jack Nicholson in full makeup and costume as the Joker. Film canisters were stolen, adding to the stress on the set. By this time, Warner Bros. had clearly placed a ton of high expectations on this film, which put a lot of pressure on Tim Burton. While a box office disaster would be a mere bump in the road for Warner Bros., it would probably kill Tim’s career before it really had a chance to take off. Additionally, this picture was much bigger than anything Tim had worked on before; all leading to one stressed out director.
While Jack Nicholson was, by most accounts, a genial presence on the set, Burton had to factor in some of the contract riders Jack had negotiated into the production schedule. Jack had negotiated time off to attend Lakers games, something he did on all of his pictures. It was always difficult to accommodate him even when filming in Los Angeles. Accommodating him in England proved to be a budget busting nightmare.
Adding to Tim’s headaches was a writer’s strike that forced the writer of the screenplay to leave the production, meaning that rewrites had to be done by Tim and the producers themselves on the fly. Jon Peters, who was producing the picture, proved to be more hands on than Tim anticipated. Jon took it upon himself to hire Prince to write songs for the film that Tim was expected to just fit into the movie and changed the film’s ending which added $100,000 to an already over budget film. Jon’s change moved the ending to a decrepit cathedral just because it looked cool. Tim was flummoxed by the change because Jon made it without scripting it first. Why would the Joker randomly climb up to the bell tower of a random building, trapping himself in a crumbling tower?
After using almost all filmmaking space at Pinewood Studios, the picture was completed and ready for its premiere. Warner Bros. had high hopes for the film and had lined up an unprecedented number of licensees and promotional partners. Would everyone be smiling after this project was unleashed on the world?
