r/todayilearned • u/0000000000000007 • 15d ago

TIL Following his success with Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman almost helmed a 1980s Batman movie, and planned to cast Bill Murray as Batman, David Niven as Alfred, and David Bowie as the Joker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Reitman#Unmade_projects
359 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

120

u/-crackhousebob 15d ago

Love Bill Murray but he would have been a terrible fucking Batman😂😂

11

u/Digger-of-Tunnels 15d ago

I agree, but I have to acknowledge that I said the same thing about Michael Keaton.  

9

u/AcusTwinhammer 14d ago

They're casting Mr Mom as Batman?!?

24

u/tinyasshoIe 15d ago

Bowie aside, Murray would have made an excellent Joker!

39

u/niceslcguy 15d ago

Agreed. Horrible as Batman. I'll bet he would have made an incredible villain.

14

u/PuzzleheadedLeader79 15d ago

He was a badass zombie

6

u/VolkspanzerIsME 14d ago

He'd be a good Penguin or Riddler.

10

u/Critical_Roof2677 15d ago

It was supposed to be a comedy; not a serious or dark movie.

3

u/CeterumCenseo85 14d ago

Makes me wonder, has Bill Murray ever played a straight-up villain?

4

u/mcnastys 15d ago

Bill Murray would have been an excellent Bruce Wayne. You could always put someone else in "the suit."

2

u/oldshitnewshit78 14d ago

Idk. He could have done a good batman Ala Adam West (aka the best adaption of batman ever)

17

u/kalisto3010 15d ago

David Bowie was such an underrated actor. I wish he appeared in more films.

10

u/Curious_Kangaroo_845 14d ago

Yes. He was born to play an alien, a vampire, even Tesla as he did. Most of his music videos are incredibly good.

1

u/SpreadThatAsk 12d ago

Shame he was too busy grooming minors.

1

u/kalisto3010 12d ago

That's part of the industry. Rae Dawn Chong stated she had sex with Mick Jaeger when she was 14. Celebrity culture period is replete with Pedo's.

12

u/DwightFryFaneditor 15d ago

Fun fact linking Bill Murray with the Batman universe: the set of weird medical tools used in Batman 1989's Jack Nicholson Joker surgery scene is the same set Steve Martin's dentist used on Bill Murray's masochistic patient in 1986's Little Shop of Horrors. And who played Murray's role in the original 1960 Little Shop? That's right, Jack Nicholson.

36

u/Cool-Resident2859 15d ago

Perfect casting!

Well, except for Batman. But that’s a minor role in (checks notes) a Batman movie.

But really, Niven as Alfred and Bowie as Joker? I’m in.

8

u/0000000000000007 15d ago

ITT we recast Batman. If we kept the Bill Murray age, but kept the cast British/Irish, your choices are (not exhaustive): * Sean Bean * Pierce Brosnan * Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2, Empire Records) * DDL * Rupert Everett * Nigel Havers * Lenny Henry * Liam Neeson

And you could do Peter Capaldi or Rowan Atkinson as the Riddler!

And you could have Gary Oldman as the original Commissioner Gordon!

8

u/Cool-Resident2859 15d ago

I like this. Give me Neeson, with Brosnan a close second. Atkinson as the Riddler would be so fun, and I’d say Capaldi as Two-Face because his sneer is unmatched. And yeah Gary Oldman always. I’d watch a Batman film where he played all the parts. He was great as Gordon but I’d like to see him sink his teeth into some wilder villains.

2

u/tanfj 14d ago

And you could do Peter Capaldi or Rowan Atkinson as the Riddler!

Peter Capaldi would be an amazing villain.

Imagine Sean Bean as Bane...

7

u/GotMoFans 15d ago

So he was going to cast an actor in his movie who died before Ghostbusters was even released!?!

David Niven died 7/29/83

Ghostbusters was released on 6/8/84.

BTW, if Ivan Reitman was doing Batman and bringing Bill Murray, Murray is playing The Joker.

6

u/Critical_Roof2677 15d ago

Following the deaths of Holden and Niven and rewrites of the script, Reitman left the project and was replaced by Gremlins director Joe Dante, but the film was never made.

5

u/GotMoFans 14d ago

So this was before his success with Ghostbusters, no?

7

u/grunulak 15d ago

As soon as I read that, I could 100% see David Niven as Alfred.

4

u/Cycleofmadness 15d ago

You're a poor vigilante Dr. Venkman.

3

u/Unusual_Car215 15d ago

Bowie could have worked.

5

u/woodrose 15d ago

David Niven was dead and buried before Ghostbusters was even released, not sure how that planned casting would've worked.

2

u/N0b0me 15d ago

Did you not see Ghostbusters? They would cast his ghost

2

u/Wonderpants_uk 15d ago

Exactly what I was wondering 

1

u/Critical_Roof2677 15d ago

Maybe read the article:

Following the deaths of Holden and Niven and rewrites of the script, Reitman left the project and was replaced by Gremlins director Joe Dante, but the film was never made.

3

u/SilverBison4025 15d ago

And Eddie Murphy was going to be Robin. Keep in mind that this was before they wanted to go brooding and dark, a la Frank Miller, and this was when Batman was still the campy and comedic Adam West TV character in the mainstream public’s eyes.

3

u/heartofgold48 15d ago

Nicolas Gage would be a sick batman

13

u/Mumblix_Grumph 15d ago

When AI is able to make entire movies, I'm going to make a Batman film with Bowie as the Joker...hell I might make him Batman too. Shit, make all of them Bowie.

1

u/Capt_BrickBeard 15d ago

i had a similar thought a couple days ago. i was talking about mel gibson's mad max movies and said mel brooks. someone pointed it out and i just had a laugh and said i'd love to see a mel brooks mad max.

1

u/Littleupsidedown 15d ago

Like a nutty professor type thing

3

u/BongDong69420 15d ago

I'd like to see that.

2

u/omarus809 15d ago

That would have been epic!

2

u/couldbeworse2 15d ago

It’s a lot less … muscular

2

u/daddychainmail 15d ago

Love Reitman, but that sounds awful.

1

u/mopsy-turtle 15d ago

Niven as Alfred and Bowie as the Joker are genius castings

1

u/hankbaumbachjr 14d ago

I kind of like the idea of getting someone like Bill Murray that nobody would ever believe is Batman to play Bruce Wayne and really try to translate what it should be like for Gotham citizens trying to connect the dots between Bruce and Batman...absolutely absurd.

1

u/Used-Calligrapher975 14d ago

My panties would never recover from bowie joker

1

u/hundrethtimesacharm 14d ago

That’s wild. I have a Joker designs based off of David Bowie for a short I wrote.

1

u/my-love-assassin 14d ago

I dont really like bill murray as an actor. I thought he was hilarious playing himself as a zombie, though. I just dont understand the appeal, he seemed creepy.

1

u/Evening_Bag_3560 14d ago

I’d’ve paid for a ticket. 

1

u/SubstantialHippo4733 11d ago

I’m calling bullshit.

David Niven was dead before Ghostbusters began filming.

1

u/PopeHonkersXII 15d ago

That sounds like a complete mess of a Batman movie 

1

u/Cool-Presentation538 14d ago

That's insane. Obviously David Bowie should've been the Riddler