1. The long development of a Batman / Superman crossover film dates back to 2001 when Andrew Kevin Walker pitched an idea to director Wolfgang Petersen. He revealed;
"It is a clash of the titans. They play off of each other so perfectly. [Superman] is clear, bright, all that is noble and good, and Batman represents the dark, obsessive and vengeful side. They are two sides of the same coin and that is material for great drama."The story involved a retired Bruce Wayne whose wife would have been murdered at the hands of the Joker. Wayne seeks revenge and is tricked into battling his former friend Superman, only to later discover that the Joker was in cahoots with Lex Luthor. The two super-friends then team-up to take Luthor down.
The script was revised by Akiva Goldsman (the man who wrote Batman Forever and Batman & Robin) and now went under the title of Batman Vs Superman: Asylum. A copy of the script was released online some years later. An embed of it is below...
Initially talk was that the then current wearer of the cowl George Clooney would be reprising the role of Batman and John Travolta was being lined up for Superman. As word spread that this would be a clean start for the ailing Bat-franchise, many other star names who were touted to be either involved or interested in the project, including Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, James Franco, Jude Law, and Paul Walker.
The whole idea was shelved in late 2002 but not before substantial work had been done on the treatment, and many designs and logo work had been explored.
Akiva Goldsman later wrote and produced the 2007 film I Am Legend, and an Easter Egg in the form of a promotional poster designed for his Batman v Superman project was inserted into a Times Square billboard early on in the Will Smith film (the screen grab is below). Remember, I Am Legend was released in 2007, 9 years before Zack Snyder's official movie saw the light of day...
2. You can read much more about the politics behind why the above version of Batman v Superman was never made in this Los Angeles Times article from 2005. In it you will notice a quote from screenwriter David S. Goyer...
"‘Batman Vs. Superman’ is where you go when you admit to yourself that you’ve exhausted all possibilities. It’s like ‘Frankenstein meets Wolfman’ or ‘Freddy Vs. Jason.’ It’s somewhat of an admission that this franchise is on its last gasp.”That's an interesting quote when you consider that in June 2013 Warner Bros. announced that director Zack Snyder would return for a Man of Steel sequel, which morphed into Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Goyer would be co-authoring the script!
3. Dawn of Justice was Ben Affleck's second film as a comic book superhero; he played Daredevil in the 2003 film of the same name. In 2006 he stated in that making that film had "inoculated [him] from ever playing another superhero", and so was very reluctant to accept the offer of playing Batman, later revealing that he...
"...felt I didn't fit the traditional mold. But once Zack showed me the concept, and that it would be both different from the great movies that Chris[topher Nolan] and Christian [Bale] made, but still in keeping with tradition, I was excited."4. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Ben Affleck revealed he was warned by Warner Bros. about the possible negative reaction to his casting, and was advised to remain off the Internet after the casting announcement. He also said, to assuage his concerns, the studio showed him negative comments that fans had initially made to previous superhero castings.
Affleck went on to say that in spite of the studio warnings, he still checked out an online message board. The first comment he read was, "Affleck as Batman? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" After seeing that, he immediately went offline.
5. Affleck gained twenty pounds of muscle and reached eight percent body fat for the role. He also bought with him to the part a suggestion from his friend, Kevin Smith - a voice modulator was included as part of his bat-suit to electronically alter his voice. Smith suggested this to him as he felt Affleck's natural speaking voice was too high-pitched for Batman.
6. Despite initially being billed as a sequel to Man Of Steel, Henry Cavill's Superman only has 42 lines of dialogue throughout the entire movie.
7. Bryan Cranston was considered for the role of Lex Luthor before Jesse Eisenberg was cast.
8. Gal Gadot's casting as Wonder Woman received much initial negativity across the internet and in many trade publications (although she was, of course, later praised for her portrayal). In 2014, after it was announced that Gadot would be playing the immortal Amazonian warrior, she was asked by a reporter about how she would get Wonder Woman's breasts from the comics (I know! It's only 6 years ago but 2014 was a very different time) Gadot responded,
"Wonder Woman is Amazonian, and historically accurate Amazonian women actually had only one breast. So, if I'd really go 'by the book,' it'd be problematic."Touche!
It is true that Amazonian warriors would sever their right breast in order to fire a bow and arrow.
9. After production wrapped Ben Affleck asked if he could have the batsuit. The producers said yes, but that he would have to pay $100,000 in order to keep it. In the same Jimmy Fallon interview mentioned above, Affleck revealed that he quickly changed his mind and just took a picture with the batsuit instead.
10. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice was released on March 25th 2016. The film grossed $166 million in the United States and Canada in its opening weekend (at that time it was the eighth-biggest opening of all time, ahead of The Dark Knight Rises' $160.9 million), and a worldwide opening of $422.5 million (which stands as the second-biggest for Warner Bros. and the fifth-biggest of all time at the time of its release).
However, both inside and outside of the United States, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice experienced a notably poor Friday-to-Sunday hold and set a new record for the worst Friday-to-Sunday drop for a superhero movie release in modern box office history with a 58% decline. In its second weekend this continued, and only really got worse. The film experienced a "historic" box-office drop, with an 81.2% decline on Friday that was "one of the biggest Friday-to-Friday drops any blockbuster has ever seen", and an overall 68.4% drop for the weekend despite not "facing any big competition at the box office", making it the second largest decline for a marquee superhero title, behind only 2003's Hulk.
According to financial analysts, Dawn Of Justice needed to reach $800 million in revenue at the box office to "recoup its investment". Despite surpassing this amount with a worldwide total of $873.6 million it was considered "a disappointment" for failing to reach $1 billion. After home video release and streaming rights were taken into consideration, Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $105.7 million. Which I wouldn't say no to, would you?
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