Before Tim Burton was ultimately chosen to direct 1989’s Batman, several other writers and directors were courted by Warner Bros. for the project. This includes the later Ivan Reitman, who was considered bringing the Caped Crusader to the big screen after finishing 1981’s Stripes. Bill Murray was the star of that film and Reitman considered making him his Batman with Eddie Murphy in the running to play Robin. Why didn’t this happen? Bill Murray is explaining why the idea quickly fell apart.
This version of the story was originally teased by Batman (1989) screenwriter Sam Hamm in a DVD documentary Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight. Murray lightly addressed the story back in 2017 on The Late Show with David Letterman, saying at the time, “You know, I’ve heard that story, too…and God, I would have been an awesome Batman.” Murray is now elaborating on why Reitman’s plans didn’t take flight in a new interview with Yahoo! Entertainment and he’s revealing that him playing the title role was in the VERY early stages.
“I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman. That’s as far as that conversation went.”
Michael Uslan, who acquired the film rights to the Batman character in 1979 and has produced every Batman movie since said that discussions around this take were “purposely kept away from” him. He went on to note that Reitman and Murray moved forward with Ghostbusters around the same time, and even though the Batman offer was still extended to Reitman, he ended up declining the project because he didn’t want to do two big films back-to-back.
Since Murphy expressed wanting to play Batman, Murray said that there was no way he was going to play Robin. Murray said, “I don’t wanna be the Boy Wonder to anybody. Maybe much earlier when I was a boy. But it was too late for that by the ’80s. Also, I couldn’t do the outfit. Eddie looks good in purple, and I look good in purple. In red and green, I look like one of Santa’s elves. There was just a lot of vanity involved in the production. It wasn’t gonna happen.”
I’m truly trying to imagine this but I just can’t see it. That being said, these almost-casting stories from the history of Hollywood are always intriguing to learn and it really does make you think about what could’ve been. Would that casting have gone over well in the 80s? Guess we can only speculate at this point.
What do you think about Bill Murray’s comments, and would you have liked to see an Ivan Reitman-directed Batman movie?