My Two Cents

There has been a lot of talk recently about the casting for the upcoming Christopher Nolan Batman Begins sequel and it’s had me thinking about casting ideas for the eventual appearance of Catwoman.

Since I was a kid Catwoman was always a character who fascinated me.
I think my first introduction to her was in reruns of the 60’s Batman TV Show. Played by 3 different actresses Julie Newmar, Ertha Kitt and Lee Meriwether it was Newmar’s portrayal that intrigued me most; strong, flirtatious and beautiful. Newmar’s Catwoman had a playful streak giving her the uncontrollable urge to commit crimes yet she always seemed regretful, almost apologetic when caught and stopped by Batman. Of course I’m really not sure if it was because she was truly contrite, if it was her attraction to Batman that made her want to submit to his ideals or if she was trying to flirt her way out of a tough spot.


As the years passed I was exposed to some of her other incarnations in print and on screen and its interesting to see how the character has changed and evolved through the years from her first appearance as the villain in Batman #1, to the slinky vigilante she would become in Batman Returns. God Michelle Pfeifer was a great Catwoman wasn’t she! In my mind she is sort of the definitive Catwoman, free-thinking, fierce and strong yet distinctly feminine in every way. So how do you top that in another movie…my answer is you don’t; you try a new and interesting take on the character.



In Nolan’s Batman Begins we’ve seen the origin of the caped crusader, the life-changing events that shaped his identity and how he learned to cope with the demons inside. I assume in Nolan’s next Batman film, The Dark Knight, we’ll see his first real challenge as our hero faces the nihilistic insanity of The Joker so as these things go I can only assume Catwoman would be next on the list.

We’ve seen the silly flirtatious Catwoman in Julie Newmar, we’ve seen a sort of near insane, animalistic Catwoman in Michelle Pfeiffer and we’ve seen the sort of pedestrian feminist everyday ordinary thief/ vigilante in the comics so what I’d love to see in the new movie is an older wiser Catwoman. A post-feminist Catwoman who is strong and stands on her own two feet, but it’s not her defining attribute.


And she should be played by someone a little older than Christian Bale like Cate Blanchett; someone who looks like she could have a past, who’s been in the game a lot longer and understands the world a little more than the young Bruce Wayne. This Catwoman started off as an idealist, but her years of experience have taught her that not everything is black and white, good and bad; the world is made up in shades of grey. She’s a thief but does that really make her evil? Does that really make her in the wrong? This Catwoman should make Bruce question his own ideals, as he is getting older and wiser himself and of course finds himself falling for her…Batman always falls for Catwoman.


Of course knowing how they always cast these things, they will probably pick some quirky little ingénue of the moment (like how they cast Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four as Sue Storm or Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane in Superman Returns) and make the character boring or pointless…but this is Christopher Nolan and he does have a pretty good track record thus far so maybe my fears are unfounded.

Then again I think we all remember this travesty...
I mean really! Who fights crime in open-toed shoes!