Tim Burton Originally Wanted Marlon Brando to Play Penguin in BATMAN RETURNS and Other Actors Who Were Almost Cast

Director Tim Burton’s Batman movies are remembered fondly by fans as wild and colorful, wacky and cartoony live-action movies in only the tone that Burton brings to his films. They gave us Michael Keatonas the caped crusader, who goes down as one of the best who has donned the cape and cowl. But the sequel, Batman Returns, almost looked a lot different from the movie we got.

According to the film’s archive page over at Turner Classic Movies, it actually took the studio some time to convince Burton to return to make another movie. Once they did, the first change made was to the screenwriter, Sam Hamm, who had written a screenplay they weren’t too excited about. Producers brought in Daniel Waters, who had previously written the dark comedy Heathers, to write the movie.

Burton said the sequel also required a completely new look, abandoning the idea of working in England on Anton Furst's still existing sets from the first movie and hiring production designer Bo Welch, who had designed the director's earlier features Beetlejuice (1988) and Edward Scissorhands (1990). Burton also secured the services of a large number of King Penguins, which had to be flown from England in a refrigerated plane and kept happy and healthy with a refrigerated trailer, a swimming pool stocked daily with a half ton of ice, and a daily delivery of fresh fish.

Michael Keaton was also not yet on board to return as the Dark Knight until the studio offered him a substantially larger salary. With the new script, Keaton was also able to bring deeper shades of anger and neurosis to Batman's alter-ego Bruce Wayne. Presumably, the greater acting opportunities and bigger pay helped assuage the fact that with so much focus on the over-the-top Penguin and Catwoman characters, the title role was almost a supporting player in his own story.

Burton wanted to cast Marlon Brando as the Penguin, but the studio said no, as they preferred Dustin Hoffman, and Batman creator Bob Kane said absolutely not to the Brando suggestion. Consideration was also given to Christopher Lloyd. When Burton and Waters redrew the character to be a deformed, vengeful half-human/half-bird villain, Danny DeVito was brought up for the role. He was initially reluctant but consented after talking with close friend Jack Nicholson, for whom the Joker role in the first movie was a major financial windfall. DeVito threw himself into the part despite the hours of make-up required to make him the Penguin and a level of secrecy surrounding the character's look that prevented DeVito from discussing it even with his family.

Michelle Pfeiffer was also not the first choice to play Catwoman. Annette Bening was signed but had to drop out when she became pregnant. Julie Newmar, one of three actresses to play the role in the TV show, reportedly lobbied for the part, despite being close to 60. Actress Sean Young showed up at the Warner Brothers lot to aggressively pursue the job. Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale in the first film, but after breaking her collar bone in an on-set accident, she was replaced by Kim Basinger. In the early ‘90s Young had a reputation for difficult, erratic behavior, so when she showed up at the studio in a Catwoman costume, producers went to great lengths to avoid her, and Burton allegedly hid under his desk. It was reported that Lena Olin and Madonna were also briefly in the running, but Pfeiffer was finally signed for the part at $3 million, $2 million more than Bening's asking price.

Burgess Meredith, who played the Penguin on the TV series, was asked to play the character's father in the opening of the film but illness prevented him from it. Burton then brought in two of the stars of his feature debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens and Diane Salinger, to play the character's parents.

I think all of these choices were great ones. I can’t imagine some of these other options! Although I am intrigued by a Penguin played by Marlon Brando! Are there any of these alternates you’d like to see in these roles?