I was just checking out the trivia on "Batman" to see if they mentioned Johnny Depp being considered for a part. I then came across this and HAD to post it:



source: Imdb.com

So Prince wasn't the first person they asked? He was just their 2nd choice? (Thanks to Jack Nicholson's suggestion)



Any comments? Or did a lot of people already know this?

The story at the time was that they were both approached to write songs for the film (possibly representing the two main characters),but Prince went away and came back with an album by himself.

They had been using Prince songs during rehearsals too apparently.

This is the first I heard of this. I can't see MJ having any kind of song on any Batman soundtrack. From what I heard, Tim Burton had thought of Prince from the start having used songs like Baby, I'm a Star and 1999 as they were filming before Prince made original songs. Who knows.

vivid said:

That's the way I remember hearing it too

I thought I read some where that Jack Nicolson played a large part in Prince's involvement. That he was a HUGE Prince fan, so Burton approached Prince for use of 1999, and Prince said he'd record him something instead. And Prince came back with an album's worth of material?

And 200 balloons and a rework of the Batman song was chunked or something like that, and Prince turned around Trust and something else?

I can't remember the source I read it from though.

Imago said:

yeah, i read that nicholson mentioned something about prince being the only person who could pull off the soundtrack - then michael keaton (i think it was him) agreed with him and they approached burton with the idea, etc. i wish i could remember where i read it

i'd never heard the bit about michael though, till just today
[Edited 4/14/08 12:42pm]

Imago said:

Rave was also supposed to be part of the Batman project, IIRC.

Michael Jackson?

sexxydancer said:

The gloved one was great once upon a time

sexxydancer said:

C'mon. Mike was the shit back in the say. Don't deny it.

ToraToraDreams said:

day, old boy. Back in the day.

Rightly said:

Okay...that looks really retarded.
Sorry.
[Edited 4/14/08 18:57pm]

Genesia said:[quote]

Imago said:

I had read that Prince gave Tim Burton a bunch of songs to choose from and he chose the majority of what became the Batman album. 200 balloons was one of them as you mentioned. Too bad it didn't make the movie, it's my favorite song from that era, that and ILuvUInMe. Actually the drum from 200 Balloons is the identical beat from Batdance(of course) so i like to loop them together when i record an album mix.

ToraToraDreams said:

If you have the special edition batman dvd you can hear tim talk about how this pairing came about. It was simply a marketing tool decided upon by the powers that be at warners (who made the movie and had prince signed to them). Perhaps nicholson etc helped him make up his mind but the decision to have prince do the soundtrack was soley the fat cats at WB

Yeah,I had always heard that Michael Jackson was considered for this project (at any early stage).The plan was for Michael to do half of the album (with songs representing the "good") while Prince would do the other half of the album (with songs representing the "bad").....a 'bad vs.evil' type of thing.

I think this is something that the producers considered but who knows if they ever approached Michael?

.
[Edited 4/15/08 4:06am]

the director used 1999 & baby i'm a star as background music in the early stages - both he & nicholson were really happy with the effect & asked prince 4 more music.
just a couple of songs were requested cuz composer danny elfman had been hired 4 the soundtrack..
but prince offered a whole album..
dunno about mj,

From what I know, Danny Elfman was asked to do the score, and incorporated into this - Prince was approached to do the theme song for the Joker, and MJ was approached to do a Love song for Batman/Bruce and Vikki!!!

Not sure how far Burton got with MJ, but Prince being Prince nearly immediately put forward something like 10/12 demos of songs for Burton to listen too, and ultimately ended up with a contract for an entire album!!!!

One of the first films to have 2 official scores/soundtracks released for it!

SoulAlive said:

Hey, but Prince is a Gemini
I thought they could have figured out for themselves that he could have handled both the good and the evil, if that truly was their aim.

Rightly said:

lol U, all R kind of funny, however I can't believe P wasn't the 1st choice, cause he's the best-
Yunghart=isTenderhart:luv: with care & butterflykisses putting little white flowers all up in her hair

If the producers had gone with MJ they would still
be waiting for his song.