One spin-off that many Batman fans wanted after the success of Tim Burton’s Batman Returns but never got was Michelle Pfeiffer-starring Catwoman movie. Following the success of Burton’s vision Warner Bros. started developing the film, but it never saw the light of day. Now it seems the visionary director had some unique plans for the spin-off. The screenwriter behind 1992’s Batman Returns, Daniel Waters recently revealed some behind-the-scenes information including the ideas that were in place.

Waters was speaking at a recent Los Angeles screening of Batman Returns and described developing Catwoman as a strange process. Both Burton and Waters had distinct ideas for Selina Kyle on the big screen. He revealed that Burton “wanted to do an $18 million black and white movie, like the original Cat People, of Selina just lowkey living in a small town.” But Waters had something else in mind – a satirical take on the superhero genre. He had the idea of making a metaphorical Batman movie,

“I wanted to make a ‘Batman’ movie where the metaphor was about Batman. So, I had her move to a Los Angeles version of Gotham City, and it’s run by three asshole superheroes,” he said. Adding, “It was The Boys before The Boys. But he got exhausted reading my script.”

Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ Movies Are Classics

While Batman and Batman Returns are considered one of the best entries featuring the Dark Knight back in the day, they felt some contention with fans. Fans weren’t too happy about how loosely Burton and Walters treated the canon, especially changing the backstories of Catwoman and The Penguin in Batman Returns. Addressing the change in consumer preference over the years, Waters said, “The whole thing about Batman Returns is we got attacked by Batman fans because they thought, ‘This is only the second Batman movie, what the f*** are you doing? You’re already going off-road,” he said. “Now there’s like 50 Batman movies, it’s like, ‘Hey. That was pretty interesting.’”

Batman Returns has an ensemble cast featuring Michael Keaton as Batman, who made his final run with this year’s The Flash, Danny DeVito as Penguin, Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth, Pat Hingle as James Gordon, Michael Murphy as the Mayor and more. Waters penned the screenplay from a story he co-wrote with Sam Hamm.

Batman and Batman Returns are available on Max in the U.S.

via Collider