Backstage - Interviews - Alan Burnett


You're credited with creating the actual story for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. How did you come up with this story? Care to finally reveal the origins of...the Phantasm?!

I wanted to do a love story and re-tell the Batman origin from a different angle. I also knew I wanted Joker in it somewhere down the line.

When writing the story, did you find yourself more liberated or more constrained with the looser censors (allowing a healthy amount of blood and mayhem), and how did that influence your story? How did it affect your mindset and writing when writing the script for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm?

All I remember is that it had to be PG. Management did not want to go beyond that. Our biggest problem was depicting murders. They had to be done very obliquely.

You share screenplay credits with Paul Dini, Martin Pasko, and Michael Reaves on Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Can you explain to us your role for this movie in terms of coordinating (deciding who wrote what, for example) and working with three other credited writers on this movie? Did you four work great together or did you find yourselves clashing over certain plot points?

All of us wrote on it because of the deadline. There wasn’t much time. I wrote the treatment and it was pretty detailed, because I knew I was going to be handing out sections to the story editors. Everyone gave me notes as I was doing this. As a group we worked well together. I wrote the first 40 pages of the script. The next section was Marty’s, which included the graveyard scene, which was something he very much wanted to write. Then Dini did the section introducing the Joker, one of his supremely favorite characters. Reaves, who’s great at big action set pieces, wrote the climactic end. Then it was all revised as scripts are, with everyone giving notes again. The only pages that remained untouched throughout the whole process was Marty’s graveyard scene, which was probably the most deeply felt moment Bruce has ever had in our whole run of Batman. All in all, everyone was pleased when we were done with it.

Now, and this likely should have been asked first, but when were you approached to write the first Batman direct-to-video feature (that would eventually morph into a big-screen tale)? Were you initially reluctant to take it, considering Batman: The Animated Series was still in active development? Were there any specific demands the studio wanted for this movie (such as including the Joker, for example)?

I was not reluctant. I was jubilant. This was a great opportunity – for everyone. The studio made no demands. We did what we wanted.

Were you surprised when Warner Bros. Animation changed this release from a direct-to-video affair to a big-screen release, apparently based on the early in-studio screenings, and how did that affect your production schedule? Any comments on the theatrical performance of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm?

The decision to make this a theatrical release came pretty early – way before we had a finished film. To my knowledge the decision was based solely on an opening title sequence of Gotham City in CG, which co-producer Eric Radomski had created. One of the executives saw that and suddenly the DVD was put on a movie track. The irony, of course, is that the rest of the movie is 2D.

Now, is there any truth to the rumor that Andrea Beaumont was not originally meant to be Phantasm, that this was a change during the film's production? Was the film's tragic outcome always planned out as we see it?

She was always going to be the Phantasm and she was always going to end up in her own hellish limbo.

Is there anything you wrote that got left out of the screenplay and/or the final draft? Are there any deleted scenes or moments that might interest fans? Anything you wish you kept in?

I’m sure there were scenes and bits of business cut for time, but I don’t remember what they were. Up until the day we shipped out the storyboards for production we were making changes. This is when I found out what a fast artist Bruce Timm was – the fastest I’ve ever seen.

Fans have been clamoring for a Special Edition release of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm on DVD (and hopefully Blu-ray). Do you know if Warner Home Video will be revisiting this movie down the line? If they do, is there something you'd like to see included in a possible future release?

There’s no talk of re-visiting it, at least not that I know of. If there were I would like to see bonus material spotlighting Shirley Walker, the composer. She brought to this story and everything she did a tremendous emotional sweep. She enriched everything she touched. It’s hard to separate our Batman from her music. They’re fused. She passed away a couple of years ago at far too young an age. It was a terrible loss.

Phantasm appeared again in both the animated comics (specifically Batman & Robin Annual #1 and Batman Adventures #5 - 8), as well as the Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue." How does it feel to have a character of your own creation added to the mythos? Do you think these further appearances weaken the character, or strengthen the character's position in the overall DCAU mythology?

I like it when anything we did in animation gets into the books. It’s always a kick.

Finally, looking back, any final thoughts on this movie? Is there anything you'd add, subtract, or just change? Basically, what do you think of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm?

I have not seen the whole movie in many years, although I did catch ten minutes of it on HBO recently. My biggest regret is that we didn’t have a bigger budget for the animation. We were working pretty much on a television schedule with a DVD budget. I’ve often thought how great if would be to make a straight super hero action animated movie with a big feature budget. But, I guess Brad Bird did that, didn’t he?

Overall I’m proud of the movie and everyone’s work on it at Warner Bros. From my end it was a very heartfelt story and fans responded well. And the DVD never quite goes away.

You know, “Phantasm” didn’t last very long in the theatres. It was sort of sold as a kid’s film, despite the adult themes and violence, and reviewers tended to dismiss it as a knock-off of the series. Some theatres only showed it in matinee performances, even in the first week of release. And suddenly it was gone, and I thought, “Well, that’s that.” Then months later I’m on vacation and get a call from my excitable boss, Jean MacCurdy, who shouted, “Siskel and Ebert just gave ‘Phantasm’ two big thumbs up!” It was because the DVD had come out. Siskel, bless his soul, even apologized for not reviewing it earlier. I was very grateful for that: in fact somewhere in my garage is a dusty, old VHS with their review.

The World’s Finest would like to thank Alan Burnett for his participation in this Q & A.

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