Voice Matters: Developing Your Voice As A New Screenwriter (Part 2)
- Fresh Voices
- Articles & Interviews
By Angel Orono
The year is 1992 and “Batman Returns” is cleaning up at the box office... This was when I became fully aware of the unique voice of screenwriter Daniel Waters. For those unfamiliar with his career, Waters exploded into Hollywood with the classic black teen comedy “Heathers”. He would, unfortunately, follow up with a pair of box office flops, “Hudson Hawk” and “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane”. You can say what you want about those films, but they are quirky and oddball as they come, for better or worse. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the uniqueness of both, but at that point in time I was barely aware they even shared the same screenwriter. It was definitely “Batman Begins” that made me take real notice of Water’s writing. And why, you ask?
“Batman Returns” was a follow-up to the film that had reminded Hollywood that superhero movies could be epic events and bring in a half-billion dollars just in U.S. box office alone. The film was also fairly straightforward, save for Jack Nicholson’s off-the-wall performance as “The Joker”. On the other hand, “Returns” feels more like a dark, twisted fairy tale that caters much more to the taste of director Tim Burton. It also has an abundance of strange quirks and tics that seem apropos of nothing. Still, these idiosyncratic, amusing moments are prevalent for those who look for them (Case in point: Pfeiffer’s character has a neon sign in her apartment reading “Hello Kitty”...Peculiar enough, but wait...When she returns, in the wake of her “Catwoman” transformation, the “o” has burned out on the neon sign and it now reads “Hell Kitty”.) ...In a multi-million dollar franchise film that is intended to cater to the masses.. And those are the Daniel Waters moments.