Halle Berry wants a shot at directing a reimagined Catwoman movie

Last Updated on November 17, 2021

After Halle Berry won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Monster’s Ball, she had the opportunity to headline or co-star in tentpole projects. She tackled the role of Jinx in the 007 film Die Another Day and then the chance arose for Berry to take on an adaptation of Catwoman. The allure for the actress was obvious. She had a chance to channel Eartha Kitt, who was one of the actresses to bring the role to life on the ’60s television series and it could lead to a potential franchise. As we all know, that is something that definitely didn’t happen.

Catwoman, released in 2004, was maligned by critics and audiences. The film holds a very rotten score of 9% on Rotten Tomatoes and with a global gross of $82.1 million on a $100 million budget, the film lost money for Warner Bros. Catwoman also went on to win four Razzie Awards, including one for Worst Actress for Halle Berry which she hilariously accepted in person with her Oscar in tow. Berry has honestly had a good sense of humor about the film’s failure for years and now, as she is making her directorial debut with Bruised, which is garnering some positive awards attention for the actress, she is expressing a desire to revisit Catwoman as a director.

During a recent interview for Jake’s Takes, Berry cites Catwoman as an IP she would love to tackle as a director. The actress said, “I would love to direct Catwoman. If I can get a hold of that now, knowing what I know, having this experience and reimagine that world the way I reimagined this story. Bruised was written for a white Irish catholic, like 25-year-old girl. I got to reimagine it. I wish I could go back and reimagine Catwoman and have a re-do on that.”

Halle Berry’s Catwoman made the mistake, of many, by not being a regular comic-book-based take on the character. Berry played Patience Phillips, a character that broke away from Selina Kyle and the signature Batman universe. She had to take on an evil cosmetics company (not exactly a universe-ending threat) when she discovers they are using a product capable of causing health issues across the world. Once she is killed by those she is trying to expose, she is brought back to life by Egyptian casts that give her cat-like abilities and enable her to pursue those who killed her. The stakes weren’t high enough in Catwoman, especially by comic book movie standards and that’s something Berry says she would change if she made the film today:

“I would have Catwoman saving the world like most male superheroes do, and not just saving women from their faces cracking off. You know, I would make the stakes a lot higher. I think make it more inclusive of both men and women.”

Berry has expressed in other interviews that they just didn’t get the story right with Catwoman. During a previous chat with “Variety“, Berry said, “The story didn’t feel quite right. I remember having that argument: ‘Why can’t Catwoman save the world like Batman or Superman do? Why is she just saving women from a face cream that cracks their face off.?’ But I was just the actor for hire. I wasn’t the director. I had very little say over that.”

Like some critical and box office bombs, Catwoman has actually developed a cult following. It might be for all the wrong reasons (or maybe the right ones depending on how you look at it) but fans were celebrating the film during its recent anniversary which led Halle Berry to take to Twitter to jokingly express where all their love was for the movie 17 years ago. Will Berry get a shot to direct Catwoman? I’m not sure it’s in the cards but at least, if she did, she would come at the project with a much better perspective.

Do YOU think Halle Berry should get a shot at directing a Catwoman movie?