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Designing the Legend
by Alan Jones
as featured in the November 1989 issue of Cinefantastique
Posted by raleagh on Sat, 19th January 2008 at 9:20am
This article has been viewed 68 times |
Production designer Anton Furst, mind-melded to Burton's creative vision, turned out the Batmobiles and other Bat stuff. According to production designer Anton Furst, the biggest headache on BATMAN wasn't the mammoth sets - it was the Batmobile. "It had to be designed, built and be in full working order in five months to be ready for the start date," said Furst. "A car manufacturer would take years to develop something like that."
Furst said he had to do the car first. "If I got late with the sets I could always draft in an extra 100 men," he said.
"With the car only two or three men could work on it at one time." Furst's initial concept drawings were sculpted in clay by Eddie Butler to fine-tune the bodywork. The final design was transformed into a working car by mechanical effects supervisor John Evans, whose team assembled the components, including customizing details from jet aircraft.
"The Batmobile has no specific time period," said Furst. "I can't say it's the concept car of the future. General Motors wanted to spend $6 million on developing a Batmobile for advertising potential. But as I had already come up with the design, Warners really stuck behind us over the issue. None of us wanted something geared to the consumer, just a pure piece of brutal expressionism which fitted into the timelessness of the movie."
For inspiration, Furst looked at speed machines from the '3Os tested on the Utah Salt Flats up through the Corvette Stingray of the '5Os, making it the urban war machine, complete with armor plating called for in the script.
"It was to be an extension of Batman 's overall total look, meant to intimidate," said Furst. "I wanted to get that visoish feel, the sort of car a knight would have had if they had this technology in medieval times. Power-dressing on an automotive level is what it boils down to in simple terms. My Batmobile probably looks more old-fashioned than the one on television."
Furst said he never looked at the '60s TV show in designing the film. "I'd seen it, of course," he said. "But that was a take-off on Batman - a joke at the expense of the legend. We went back to the basics because we weren't making a spoof. We were trying to make a psychological drama."
Fortunately for Furst, at least his design for the Batwing plane didn't have to work - it was designed strictly for miniatures filming. Furst said he developed the plane along the same low-tech guidelines as the car. "Like the Bat- mobile, it doesn't have laser zap guns, but gatling guns," said Furst.
"Batman doesn't have enormous technical know-how. The technology's about the same as a standard jet aircraft."
Furst developed the Batwing shape to conform to the Batman logo for the brilliantly scripted touch where it ascends into the clouds and pauses against the on an moon to recreate the symbol in the sky.
"Surprisingly, as Warners owns DC Comics, they never put any pressure on me to do anything they thought went against the grain of the legend," said Furst of the studio's support. "I'm interested in the fan reaction to the film and Keaton. I think he's great because he has these chilling, piercing eyes. I can't see how anyone can complain because our film is stylistically in keeping with the comics." |
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