IMAGINE funnyman Bill Murray playing Batman?

While he may have pulled off the Ghostbusters suit, but Peter Venkman as the Caped Crusader? Come off it!

Well, the thought apparently entered the minds of Warner Bros. studio chiefs in the mid-'80s.
This take on Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter ego was to be a blockbuster comedy, camp in style, similar to the 1960s TV series starring Adam West.

Zang!

Talk about Lost in Translation.




Can you imagine the scene, Batman holding up some poor low-life criminal by the neck and in a whiny Phil-from-Groundhog-Day-type voice says "I'm not The God ... but I'm A God''.

But, wait there's more.

None other than fellow heavyweight of the '80s Eddie Murphy was to play the Boy Wonder, Robin.

Holy Norbit Batman!

This was afterall in a decade when Tom Cruise was considered cool, even when he says "I
feel the need, the need for speed".

They did things a little differently back then.

Murray's director on Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman, was later attached to direct a different version of the DC Comics character, this one starring an unkown actor in the title role.
It was unknown then , and it remains unkown who that particular unkown was.




Of course, many initially believed the casting of Michael Keaton - a comedic actor like Murray known for being a house husband - in Burton's film was a strange choice for such an action extravaganza the director was planning.

Alec Baldwin, who had starred in Burton's earlier film Beetlejuice, as well as Charlie Sheen, Pierce Brosnan and Tom 'I could've been Indiana Jones' Selleck were also linked to the part.

Robin Williams was considered for The Joker, eventually played by the legendary Jack Nicholson, and Sean Young was actually cast as Vicki Vale but broke her collarbone in a horse-riding accident, so was replaced by Kim Basinger.

Kapow!