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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