Boggle...

[ffutures]

Mentioned on soc.history.what-if

Orson Welles considered making a Batman movie in the 1940s

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=14529

As pointed out by heliograph, this turns out to be a hoax:

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Batman-Orson-Welles-Hoax

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Well, he was the Shadow, you know.:) Of whom Batman certainly descended.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten that. OK, not quite as strange as I'd imagined.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhquKI_wq_0

Radio-wise, he also was Dracula in Dracula, and let's not forget The War of the Worlds. A genre boy, our Orson.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's one of the great lost cultural possibilities. Imagine the image superheroes would have after a Welles noir treatment of the noirest of them all.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

You do know it is a hoax, right? Even setting aside all the obvious giveaways in the column (obvious to 1940s film fans, anyway), seven years on the "detailed sketches" would be all over the internet by now.

This is, in fact, why I hate the Internet, especially for historical stuff. Misinformation gets endlessly recycled and never fact checked...

Though I can't help but think Orson himself would have approved. If you haven't seen F IS FOR FAKE check it out!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I should know better by now, but it was such a nice idea I didn't check.

I've seen F Is For Fake - a lovely bit of film, especially the final part.

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

John Wayne as Captain America? Nah, The Duke would only played Nick Fury leading his Howlin' Commandos against the Nazi menace.

[sirernest.livejournal.com]

Well, we could always cast Jerry Lewis as the cap.