Recast the Burton/Schumacher films as if they were made later

[DigificWriter]

Hi. I did a search on this and couldn't find anything, so hopefully it's not a duplicate thread.

Inspired by the "Cast the Movie in a Different Time" thread in the Misc. Films section, I thought it might be a fun and interesting exercise to apply the idea to Batman and recast the pre-Nolan films as if they were made later than they were in real life. I'm also going to make this discussion a place where people can talk about how they would 'remake' or alter the films, so they don't necessarily need to be cast exactly as they were IRL.

I'll start:
Batman (2001)
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Caroline Thompson
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Johnny Depp as Jack Napier/The Joker
Helena Bonham Carter as Vicki Vale
Ewan McGregor as Alexander Knox
Michael Clarke Duncan as Harvey Dent
Glenn Shadix as Commissioner James Gordon
Michael Gambon as Alfred Pennyworth
Christopher Lee as Carl Grissom

Batman Returns (2004)
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Caroline Thompson and John August
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Helena Bonham Carter as Vicki Vale (I think Burton would be inclined to keep the character around given his relationship with Carter)
Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin
Sarah Jessica Parker as Selina Kyle/Catwoman
Alan Rickman as Max Schreck
Glenn Shadix as Commissioner James Gordon
Michael Clarke Duncan as Harvey Dent (I think Dent is another character Burton would want to keep around)
Michael Gambon as Alfred Pennyworth
Paul Reubens as the Mayor of Gotham City

Batman Forever (2007)
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Caroline Thompson and John August
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Helena Bonham Carter as Vicki Vale
Casper Van Dien as Edward Nygma/The Riddler
Brandon T. Jackson as Dick Grayson/Robin
Anne Hathaway as Chase Meridian
Sarah Jessica Parker as Selina Kyle/Catwoman
Michael Clarke Duncan as Harvey Dent/Two-Face
Glenn Shadix as Commissioner James Gordon
Michael Gambon as Alfred Pennyworth

Batman Triumphant (2010)
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Caroline Thompson and John August
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Sarah Jessica Parker as Selina Kyle/Catwoman
Brandon T. Jackson as Dick Grayson/Robin
Anne Hathaway as Chase Meridian
Glenn Shadix as Commissioner James Gordon
Michael Gambon as Alfred Pennyworth
Winona Ryder as Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy
Martin Short as Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze
Paul Giamatti as Jason Woodrue
George McArthur as Bane
Glenn Shadix as Commissioner James Gordon
Michael Gambon as Alfred Pennyworth

As you can see, I made some significant changes to the cast of Batman Forever, and combined ideas for Batman and Robin with the title of Schumacher's never-produced B&R sequel.

How would you guys recast/remake the Burton/Schumacher films if they had been made later than they were?

 

[The Batman]

Basically, my casting is a “what would happen if the original series happened 20 years later than it actually did” kind of thing. There would be no B & R, as trilogies are the standard right now, unless the split the last installment in two. Harvey would probably take Shreck’s place in BR, and the trilogy would show his descent into madness.


BATMAN (2009):


Batman: Jon Hamm
The Joker: Johnny Depp
Vicki Vale: Charlize Theron
Knox: Louis C.K
Alfred: Alan Rickman
Gordon: Bryan Cranston
Harvey Dent: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Grissom: Clint Eastwood
Bob: Norman Reedus
Alicia: Emily Ratajkowski


BATMAN RETURNS (2012)

Batman: Jon Hamm
The Penguin: Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Catwoman: Eva Green
Harvey Dent: Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Alfred: Alan Rickman
Gordon: Bryan Cranston

BATMAN FOREVER (2015)

Batman: Jon Hamm
Robin: Young Unknown Actor
The Riddler: Jake Gyllenhaal
Two Face: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chase Meridian: Scarlett Johannson
Gordon: Bryan Cranston
Alfred: Alan Rickman

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Nice cast.

I'd be interested in hearing your reasoning for choosing the actors you did.

 

[The Batman]

I chose Jon Hamm as Bruce/Batman because like Keaton, Hamm is an actor who's good at both drama and comedy. He can handle the melancholy of Batman/Bruce the real guy, and the humor of Bruce at a social function.

I think that if Batman movies still cast villains the way they did back then, Depp would most certainly have been cast as a villain, either Joker or Riddler for sure. He'd be a draw the same way Nicholson was.

Bryan Cranston would and has already made a good Jim Gordon. If the Burton films were being made today, his role would most certainly have to be expanded. Alan Rickman has both the gravitas and wit to play Alfred.

I cast Jake as Riddler because of his performance as Nightcrawler.

 

[DigificWriter]

Cool.

My explanations:
Batman
I picked Wahlberg, Duncan, Shadix, and Carter because my thinking was that, in my imagined world, Burton made his Batman movie in lieu of making Planet of the Apes, in which those four all starred.

Like you, I felt that a character like Joker was perfect for Depp, but I also picked him because he and Burton work so incredibly well together.

I could've gone with Michael Gough for Alfred and Gordon the same way that Burton did initially, but decided to go a little bit younger with the character, and picked Gambon because he had worked with Burton before and has an acting style similar to Gough's.

I had initially gone younger with Grissom, but realized it wouldn't work and immediately thought of Lee, who had worked with Burton before and is also a legendary actor who can make even the smallest role important.

Batman Returns
Even though in this reality Mars Attacks would've been the first time that Burton and Danny DeVito worked together and DeVito was older at this point than he was in 1992 when he played the Penguin character in real life, I honestly couldn't see anybody else in that role.

For Selina, I needed someone who was fairly close in age to Wahlberg, and also wanted to cast someone that Burton had already worked with, and Parker just seemed to be the perfect fit.

I didn't want to 'reuse' Walken because I wanted Schreck to be slightly younger, and went with Rickman because he'd worked with Burton before and has the acting chops to make Shreck every inch the smarmy charismatic bastard he needs to be.

The Mayor of Gotham is not a role I would consider to be all that important to Returns's story, but needed to cast it and thought it would be a nice way for Reubens to showcase his range.

Batman Forever
Casper Van Dien is a very different type of actor than either Jim Carrey or Burton's originally rumored choice for the Riddler, Robin Williams, but I wanted somebody who could make the Riddler different from Joker and Penguin but fit Burton's style, and Van Dien seemed like the perfect choice.

Anne Hathaway is younger than Nicole Kidman was at the time she played the role of Dr. Meridian in real life, but I'm a big fan of hers and thought the role would be a great way to showcase her range.

Every rumor about Robin showing up in Burton's Bat-verse point to the character being 'race-flipped', and I thought that was an interesting enough take on the character to look for somebody who was both fairly young and African-American, and settled on Brandon T. Jackson.

Batman Triumphant
I had toyed with casting Winona Ryder as Selina Kyle before ultimately going with Parker, but really wanted to have her work with Burton again and thought that Poison Ivy was the perfect role for her.

Martin Short is probably not someone you would normally think of for the role of Freeze, but when trying to come up with somebody who could 'Burton-ize' the role, he was my very first choice.

The role of Jason Woodrue is one of those roles that I think would have been more important if Burton had directed a movie that was similar in plot to Batman and Robin as we got it, and picked Giamatti because he's got the right mix of quirky creepiness and gravitas to make the role work.

Bane is also a role that I think would've been made more important with Burton at the helm, and I needed somebody who had worked with Burton before and had the physical presence to make Bane truly menacing even in a supporting capacity, and McArthur fit the bill perfectly.

 

[Keehar]

What's the name of that guy who plays Herecule Poirot? He'd be a perfect Penguin.

 

[DawnOfJustice16]

2014
Jim Caviezel/Batman
Patrick Stewart /Mr Freeze
Christopher Lee /Alfred
Adam West /Gordon
Logan-Lerman/Robin
Emily Blunt /Bat-girl

2013

Jim Caviezel/Batman
Joseph Gordon-Levitt /The Riddler
Edward Norton /Two Face
Jessica Chastain /Chase Meridian
Christopher Lee/Alfred
Adam West/ Gordon
Logan-Lerman/Robin

2012

Jim Caviezel/Batman
Jonah Hill /The Penguin
Olivia Wilde / Catwoman
Edward Norton /Harvey Dent
Christopher Lee /Alfred
Adam West /Gordon

2011

Jim Caviezel/Batman
Steve Carell /The Joker
Hayden Panettiere /Vicki Vale
Seth Rogen / Knox
Christopher Lee/ Alfred
Adam West/ Gordon
Edward Norton /Harvey Dent
AL Pacino /Grissom