Catwoman is easily one of the most beloved characters from the DC Universe. Although a villain turned into an anti-hero, she is widely shipped with her nemesis turned lover Batman and is, thus, equally hyped as well. Yet, while her comic book appearances are thoroughly appreciated, her big screen presence hasn’t been done justice by many, especially in her one and only standalone movie, which saw Halle Berry portraying her.
Even so, there was a time when her big screen portrayal could have been done justice by Michelle Pfeiffer in a standalone movie that was in talks way before Berry’s $82 million disaster. However, due to some “creative differences” between the writer and the director, that film never came to be.
The Solo Catwoman Film Michelle Pfeiffer Could Never Star In
Although Michelle Pfeiffer has played the fan-favorite character of Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle, in only one movie, i.e., Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, 1992, her performance was widely commended by fans worldwide.
So much so that even Warner Bros. started contemplating and developing a possible breakout spin-off solo movie for the character, starring Pfeiffer in the lead. But both director Burton and screenwriter Daniel Waters had wildly different approaches to the movie.
During the screening of Batman Returns at the Egyptian on the 22nd of December, 2023, the screenwriter took the time to share some facts about the Pfeiffer starrer that never came to be. Sharing Burton’s approach to the movie, he said (via IndieWire):
“[Tim 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.”
On the one hand, while Tim Burton‘s intimate dramatical version would have paid tribute to Jacques Tourneur’s 1942 horror movie Cat People, David Waters’ story model, on the other, would have focused on a more humourous approach to the superhero genre.
“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 a–hole superheroes. It was ‘The Boys’ before ‘The Boys.’”
However, due to the creative differences between the pair, Burton got “exhausted” while reading Waters’ script, and just like that, the solo Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman movie couldn’t get out of the development hell.
Halle Berry’s Catwoman Was Nothing Short Of A Disaster
After Michelle Pfeiffer’s solo movie as Selina Kyle got canceled, many Catwoman fans desperately awaited the release of the first and only standalone movie of the character: Halle Berry‘s 2004 film. But little did they know how disappointed they would be when they got the chance to finally watch the film.
Not only did it get insultingly low reviews from the critics, but even the general audiences gave more than just a negative reception to the film. Due to reasons cited as a poorly developed plot lacking proper character development and action sequences, the film was crowned as a box-office bomb.
Made on a budget of $100 million, it couldn’t recover even the amount spent in production and finished at merely $82 million overall from its box office grossing, as observed by The Numbers. If anything, it had a terrible impact on Berry’s career as well.
Nonetheless, it still managed to grab nine accolades out of fourteen nominations; 4 of which were won out of 7 nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards, and 5 of the remaining were won out of 7 other nominations for the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards–insulting, but humorously well deserved.
Thanks to this 2004 box-office nightmare, no other filmmaker quite took the initiative for another Catwoman movie. As for Halle Berry’s career: it was put back on track after a regression, thankfully, even though it never really recovered completely.
