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Kevin O'Neill's final work, Silent Pictures, to be published next week by Knockabout and Gosh Comics, with an introduction by Alan Moore
Posted in: Batman, Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: jack nicholson, michael uslan, The Joker
The Moment Jack Nicholson Was Cast As The Joker A Decade Before Batman
The moment that Jack Nicholson was cast as The Joker, almost a decade before Tim Burton's Batman film was released, according to Michael Uslan
Article Summary
- Jack Nicholson was envisioned as The Joker by Batman producer Michael Uslan a decade before the film's release.
- Uslan decided on Nicholson after seeing his chilling performance in The Shining in 1980.
- Other big names like Tim Curry, David Bowie, and Robin Williams were considered but Nicholson was always favoured.
- Nicholson negotiated a unique contract, earning up to $90 million from Batman and merchandise revenue.
While the casting of Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's first Batman movie gained much fan ridicule and anger at the time, the announcement that Jack Nicholson would play his opposite, The Joker, won nothing but praise. However, the Batman producer, and the man who had bought and then championed the movie rights for years before anyone would take him seriously, had planned for this a decade before the film's release. As Michael Uslan posted to social media;
"A Secret Origin: It was May 1980 and the start of Memorial Day weekend. I bought the afternoon New York newspaper, "The Post," and boarded the bus to New Jersey. I opened to the movie section. Two big Holiday movies were opening, "The Empire Strikes Back," and a new horror film, "The Shining."For the first time, I saw that iconic picture of a maniacal Jack Nicholson peering through a doorway and my brain nearly fell out! THIS was clearly the ONLY actor who could play the Joker in our dark and serious Batman movie project! When I got home, I raced to my desk, tore out the picture from the newspaper, and used White-Out on Jack's face, a red pen to do his lips, and magic marker for his hair. Voila! I then showed this to everyone then associated with our Batman film and the rest is movie history…"
It wasn't entirely set in stone, however, as Tim Curry, David Bowie, John Lithgow, Brad Dourif, Ray Liotta, and James Woods were all considered for the role. Lithgow says he successfully talked Tim Burton out of casting him. Burton is said to have wanted John Glover, and Robin Williams lobbied for the part, but Nicholson was the studio's top choice and fellow producer Jon Peters approached Nicholson for the role in 1986, during the filming of The Witches of Eastwick. As part of his deal, Nicholson had lead star billing, had an "off-the-clock" agreement specifying the number of hours he was entitled to have off each day, as well as not filming during for Los Angeles Lakers home games. He reduced his standard $10 million fee to $6 million in exchange for a cut of the movie and merchandise sales, which may have netted as much as $90 million, according to his agent. And all thanks to some well-applied Tippex…
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