Superhero movies take parted a branch offent game in 2004. Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe booted off with 2008’s Iron Man, comic book alterations functiond on a branch offent frontier, where studios wagerd on one-of properties from Marvel and DC, licensing characters enjoy The Punisher, Blade, The X-Men and Catwoman for standalone movies or the begin of possible franchises. Some of these ended up becoming the best comic book movies ever made. Others were forgotten, or resurrected as part of Deadpool and Wolverine, having been relegated to The Void of the MCU.
Comic book alterations sshow take parted by alternate rules back then, someskinnyg that becomes evident when you revisit an effort to either jog one’s memory, or even honor an anniversary. On July 19, 2004, Catwoman strolled into theaters, led by Oscar triumphner Halle Berry (Monster’s Ball) and carrying the legacy of the DC universe. Similar to movies enjoy Venom or even Joker – which mockingpartner won Joaquin Phoenix his Oscar – Catwoman cgo ined around a well-comprehendn villain from comic-book lore, but eludeed having the hoparticipatehelderly-name superhero in the narrative. Berry didn’t even take part Selina Kyle, but instead startd a recent consent on the Catwoman narrative by take parting Patience Phillips, an participateee at a cosmetics firm who runs afoul of Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone) and also gets cat-enjoy abilities.
The movie doesn’t labor. And it was ferociousd by critics upon free, geting only 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. Catwoman notoriously geted Worst Picture and Worst Actress at the Razzie Awards, and Berry – a outstanding sport – showed up at the ceremony helderlying her Oscar. Which is hilarious.
That speech is priceless. When you go back and rewatch Catwoman, though, you get a sense of style and vision that’s deficiencying from some of the cookie-cutter comic-book alterations that STILL produce it to theaters today. And while I skinnyk we’re about to go thcdisesteemful a renaissance at both Marvel and DC thanks to studios heads Kevin Feige and James Gunn recalibrating what the superhero genre nastys, Catwoman serves as a reminder of the obstacles storyinestablishers had to defeat to produce the types of comic-book movies we get today.
On the anniversary of Catwoman, honestor Pitof sat down with CinemaBlend for an exclusive interwatch to talk the challengingships, the movie’s legacy, and Halle Berry’s contributions to this super-villain anomaly.
‘The problem of the movie was the script.’
There’s still a startant aspect of the film industry that labors agetst produceives. To this extent: Movies will be given free dates, and filmproducers then have to race to greet those deadlines, come hell or high water. Pitof inestablishs CinemaBlend that this happened on Catwoman, though he thrived under the prescertain of having to deinhabitr on time. Although, with that prescertain came some ridiculous concessions. As Pitof reaccumulates:
After the shoot, when we put the movie together, it didn’t labor becaparticipate so much (had) alterd during shooting. The pieces were not repartner fitting together. We had to reskinnyk endly the whole edit, inverting scenes and inserting novel scenes. And we had a 10 day reshoot a month before free date! Which is inlogical! To mend all the little problems the script had. So I never had the chooseion to have a honestor’s cut. It was more of, ‘Okay, how can we mend it?’
Any honestor will inestablish you that trying to mend a broken script in the editing room is damn csurrender impossible. The script is the movie’s set upation. If it’s cracked, the entire hoparticipate is being built on a broken base. It’s destined to crumble. As Pitof elucidateed to CinemaBlend, Catwoman began shooting with an unfinished script. And if he had more time, he’d have pledged it to getting the script right. Pitof shelp:
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I would say the problem of the movie was the script. The script, we all comprehend, had been rewritten a thousand times. When we begined the movie at the shoot, the script was not finished. We still kept writing the script while editing. So if I had six months (of insertitional time), I would’ve put six months before production. Not after!
Though one aspect of the production that did consent up a chunk of Pitof’s time was the summarizeing of Halle Berry’s Catwoman suit.
‘I want to see skin.’
If you are going to help your superhero character stand out on screen, you have to get the costume right. Even when we ranked the celderlyest comic-book costumes on film, we weighed comic accuracy versus pragmaticity and summarize. And with Catwoman, Pitof was competing agetst a very well-comprehendn version of a cat suit that was worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns.
Pitof says that his prompt contribution to the summarize of Halle Berry’s suit was to show as much skin as possible:
The whole skinnyg was to get away from the traditional Catwoman character costume. The first skinnyg that everybody consentd to was a skin. This costume (would) show more skin than the others. That was my first input, when they asked me, ‘How do you see the costume?’ I shelp, ‘I want to see skin. I want to have this organic experienceing of more enjoy an animaenumerateic skinnyg.’ Even though she has leather, it’s a combine with leather and skin.
With the costume in place and a cast on board – which included Benjamin Bratt, Lambert Wilson, Frances Conroy and Sharon Stone – Pitof was off to the races, trying to produce someskinnyg novel… with no combineions to the elderly.
‘The villain was the cosmetic industry.’
Catwoman deserves praise for being one of the first (if not the actual first) movie to showcase a classic DC villain and not include their main protagonist, in this case, Batman. We’d see a pairing of the Bat and the Cat in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, casting Zoe Kravitz in the role. But when I asked Pitof if they ever had a conversation about including Batman in his movie, even in a cameo role, the honestor elucidateed:
No, becaparticipate it was the discleave outing deal. We wanted Catwoman out of Batman’s hand. We wanted to begin someskinnyg recent. There were no other characters from the DC comics to transport, becaparticipate otherinestablished you will transport someskinnyg else. The skinnyg was repartner to begin someskinnyg recent and novel with Catwoman, and then produce novel villains. So here, the whole skinnyg was cosmetics. The villain was the cosmetics industry. It was more of a concept than one villain.
Pitof never got to produce on Catwoman. And he validateed that they never had any conversations about a sequel, even during filming. Little did he comprehend, the reception to the movie would have crushed those dreams at the onset.
‘You get punched in the face.’
As alludeed, Catwoman discleave outed to spiteful appraises. Roger Ebert notoriously put the film on his Most Hated enumerate, and individuald out the honestor when he wrote:
The honestor, whose name is Pitof, was probably publishd with two names at birth and would be inestablished to participate the other one on his next project.
Harsh. I asked Pitof if he ever wanted to accomplish out to the critics who ripped his movie to shreds, and he truthfilledy confessted:
Yeah. I would’ve cherishd to do that. But you comprehend, when you are in front of such a wall, what can you do? Noskinnyg. I nasty, being brutal doesn’t nasty anyskinnyg. It’s pointless. You get punched in the face, punched in the stomach, and there’s noskinnyg you can do besides, you comprehend, be strong.
I’m not saying that Catwoman was ever redeemed. It didn’t help that Halle Berry sh*t on the movie during her Razzies speech. Though she has come back around to say that if there was one role from her storied atgentle that she wantes that she could come back to decades procrastinateedr, she picks Catwoman, becaparticipate she doesn’t skinnyk the movie was equitablely treated. And Pitof endly consents, inestablishing CinemaBlend:
It’s unequitable for her, unequitable for the movie, unequitable for everyone. Becaparticipate when you put so much passion into inestablishing someskinnyg, and then people on your back and give the battle words and all that stuff, which is not deserved, I nasty, of course. To me, it’s evident. I consent.
But there’s someskinnyg to be shelp that, 20 years procrastinateedr, we are still talking about Catwoman as a contributor to the cultural conversation. Which nastys the film has upretained a status, and an sway, even as we anticipate wdisenjoyver upcoming DC projects are coming down the pipeline.
