1988 Behind the Scenes Promo Video for Tim Burton's BATMAN

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Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of Tim Burton's wonderful big screen adaptation of Batman. At that time, comic book movies were kind of a new thing, audiences weren't used to them, so the studio had to try and find ways to convince them on watching a dark and serious take on the superhero. 

One of the things they put together was a 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary short that takes us through the history of the character, and points out all of the thought and work that went into creating Burton’s movie. That doc has now been released online for all of you to watch!

The doc comes from 1989Batman.com, and they talked to director Andrew Gillman about it, and this is what he had to say:

"Warner Brothers had found themselves in a very difficult situation at the time. The marketing director at Warner told me that Adam West had been going to various media outlets stating that he should be Batman, that his Batman was the only true Batman, and that this dark thing that Warner was doing had nothing to do with Batman at all. This caused a problem for Warner Brothers because it created doubts in the minds of the film distributors and merchandisers around the world.

"Since the longer lead time involved in both merchandise production and film distribution requires a gamble on how a film will look in its finished form, Warner needed to create something to reassure these investors that Tim Burton’s vision for movie was going to work, that this movie was going to be successful. They needed to show them that Adam West’s statements were inaccurate, and that the film would present a version of Batman truer to the comic than the campy, comedic TV show of the 60’s. The opening sequence of the preview film has very specific references to clue-in these investors that the film was returning to Batman’s true heritage, with the West TV show being addressed as merely a footnote in the overall history. In fact, this film would be the vaccination of the Adam West Batman- returning to the character all the wonder of the original comics. So this whole opening statement is basically an assurance to the viewer that Warner is presenting you with the “real” Batman now."

There's a lot of great stuff loaded in the video so I hope you enjoy it!

Another rare treat to celebrate Batman's 25th Anniversary! Much like the recently posted Video Press Kit, the 1988 Warner Brothers Batman Preview is a long-buried treasure created during the production of Batman. The origins of the special are a bit murky, and the few that have seen it over the years remain unclear on what purpose the film initially served.