H.R. Giger Pitched A Scary Looking Batmobile For Val Kilmer's Batman Forever
If you ask me, out of all the Batmobiles that graced the silver screen in the various live-action adaptations of the Caped Crusader, including the animated Batman series on Prime Video, the version from Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" looked the coolest. It was slick, lean, and stylish without being overtly extravagant — a truly imaginative design that suited Val Kilmer's peculiar Batman, even if it wasn't all that similar to the Batmobile from the previous two films with Michael Keaton.
Initially, the producers behind the Batman flick approached Swiss artist H.R. Giger, who gave us the Xenomorph in the original "Alien" movie, which had a bonkers alternate ending — winning an Academy Award for it in the Best Visual Effects category in 1980. Giger, employing the biomechanical art style he was a master of, sent in early scribblings of his Batmobile design (which you can check out here). His vision was an X-shaped vehicle with pods on each side that could be used as weapons.
The car was futuristic, unusual, and bold in a fashion that could've worked as well as the one we eventually got. But the studio and the producers passed on it, finding it too weird and likely a touch too surreal for a popular superhero like Batman.
The Batmobile was made by industry newcomer Trans-FX
Ultimately, Giger's Alien-like design remained an idea on paper. As Barbara Ling, production designer on "Batman Forever", recalled in a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, "[Giger] had these insane, fabulous, weird scribbles that were very like "Alien." It was exciting that this strange mind briefly touched upon us, but it didn't work out."
Instead, they hired Trans-FX (also known as TFX), a company founded in 1993 with a team of young designers and engineers, whose first significant job was Schumacher's Batman film in 1995. TFX noted the use of cutting-edge digital technology of the time and CNC fabrication to create the iconic Batmobile for "Batman Forever". They built the vehicle from scratch, using drawings, 3D clay, and other tools to shape the car to the director's liking — a far cry from the life-sized Batmobile built using 500,000 Legos.
As cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt remembered, "Joel [Schumacher] wanted to literally make it comic book looking." Although the 1995 sequel is hardly a favorite of die-hard fans — it currently has a 41% Tomatometer and 33% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes — the stylish look of the film, including the Batmobile, did get some praise from critics and viewers. And despite its shortcomings, "Batman Forever" ended up being a box office smash, garnering $336 million worldwide against its $100 million budget.