Prior to Tim Burton receiving the gig to direct Batman 89, The Gremlins and The Burbs director, Joe Dante was up for the job. His biggest demand was eventually what made Warner Bros go with Burton, but for a while, Dante was in the running to bring the caped crusader to life. While Burton went with Jack Nicholson as The Joker, Dante had big plans to bring John Lithgow in for the Clown Prince of Crime.
Let’s be honest, y’all. Lithgow could play the shark in Jaws if need be. The actor has brilliant range. His villains from Raising Kane to Ricochet and beyond have managed to stick in audiences’ minds. The thought of Lithgow as The Joker is so flat-out brilliant that it broke my brain.
During, the latest episode of Dante and Josh Olson’s podcast, The Movies That Made Me the Matinee director briefly chats about his experience with Batman 89 and his thoughts on Lithgow as The Joker.
I would love to sit down and chat with Dante further on what additional direction he would have had for his Batman film. I fall into the camp of people who loved Burton’s Batman 89, but I would have loved to see Dante’s sensibilities reflected in the world of Bob Kane’s works.
If you haven’t listened to Olsen and Dante’s Movies That Made Me Podcast yet, please do yourself a favor and check out that enormous library of episodes.
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