The release of The Batman has everyone talking about the masked superhero. Robert Pattinson is being hailed for his portrayal of the villain-slaying comic icon as he joins the list of other Hollywood superstars to put on the cape. Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Val Kilmer, and Adam West are only a handful of actors to tackle the role, but another missed his opportunity to add his name to the Batman club.
It was back in the early 1980s when Ivan Reitman—director of films including Animal House, Space Jam, Ghostbusters, and Kindergarten Cop—was in talks to direct a Batman film. He needed to cast his title character and wanted Ghostbusters icon, Bill Murray.
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Murray revisited this time in his career during a chat with Yahoo Entertainment’s The Never-Weres and shared why this one never came to fruition. It seems that the person they had in mind for the role of Robin wanted to be the lead.
“I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman,” said Murray. “That’s as far as that conversation went.” He was asked if things had moved forward, would he have been Murphy’s sidekick on screen.
“I don’t wanna be the Boy Wonder to anybody,” Murray added. “Maybe much earlier when I was a boy. But it was too late for that by the ’80s. Also, I couldn’t do the outfit. Eddie looks good in purple, and I look good in purple. In red and green, I look like one of Santa’s elves. There was just a lot of vanity involved in the production. It wasn’t gonna happen.”
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