Gotham City

My first winter in Kansas City, I began a Word file of composition ideas, a running priority list ranging from imminent and imperative to hypothetical and improbable. Around that time, the Captain was telling me about an idea he had for an animated vignette for the legend of Batman.

The thing about Batman is, the legend is so big that it can be reimagined in so many ways, so many different styles, and you always have your personal notions of what it should be.

We talked about the idea of an ongoing CGI television series simply titled Gotham City. My take on it was this: if you're going to do Batman, go all out. Make the entire Gotham universe.

Like this:

1) The overall look should be extremely gothic and Neo-Victorian or Steampunk or whatever word evokes the imagery of a place with nasty-looking points on every building top and a de-saturated color palette that is mostly grays and bronzes.
2) Batman works alone. No Robin. Maybe Robin is killed in the opening scene of the pilot episode, just to set the tone. And there’s no such thing as Batgirl. Don’t be stupid.
3) All the villains are out there simultaneously (we’re talking 30+), but most of them work alone and spend a long time licking their wounds after Batman thwarts their plans, so they spend a great deal of time plotting in secret while another villain happens to take the limelight. So Batman is pretty much working nonstop keeping them at bay, but the villains hardly ever die. And apparently Arkham Asylum is easy to escape from.
4) The series lasts about six seasons, which allows for some good planning ahead, giving each season a different unique arc. But if you are going to kill off a villain permanently, you shouldn’t have to wait for May sweeps to do it in the finale. Keep the viewers guessing.
5) Although you include re-imaginings of obscure villains like Copperhead and Professor Hugo Strange, the Joker must absolutely always be considered the arch-nemesis.
6) Occasionally, villains even fight each other, when it’s in their best interests. The enemy of your enemy isn’t necessarily your friend. But sometimes they might team up. Rarely.
7) Batman isn’t even in every episode. Sometimes it’s all about the villain beating the other villain or framing them, sometimes it’s from the point of view of Commissioner Gordon, sometimes it’s from the point of view of a reporter who gets too curious. It’s Gotham City’s story, and Batman just happens to be a prominent character.
8) Two-Face is the only villain who develops over time. Harvey Dent is Bruce Wayne’s buddy for the first two seasons or so before his metamorphosis, but other than that, everyone’s there from the get-go. No origin stories needed—that’s what flashbacks are for. Just BOOM—first episode and you’re in the thick of it. Oh, and Clayface is the focus of the pilot episode, not the Joker… not yet.
9) Yes, Catwoman and Poison Ivy could have a hinted romance with Batman. It’s canon. Use it carefully. Batman is a tragic figure and he has lots of demons, so any love story should be even darker than the crime drama surrounding it.
10) Mr. Freeze is modeled after and voiced by Patrick Stewart.
11) Did I mention this universe is dark?
12) The Batmobile looks almost organic, in a sickeningly thorny way.
13) Halloween is like three episodes long every season.
14) Batman’s outfit is solid black, no blues or grays. His cape should be drawn to be exaggerated in length, always seeming to spread out on the ground in an outward circle from his feet, and should give him a gaunt look when he’s standing still… and the points on his hood are also slightly exaggerated in length.
15) Absolutely no crossovers, cameos, or even subtle references to other DC heroes or villains. There is no Metropolis.

I could flesh this out more, but aren’t you getting tired of these long blog posts?

I should be a producer. I can come up with concepts, handpick other people to do the actual work, and throw the studio’s money at them. Dude, it would be awesome.

Anyway, this new take on Batman inspired me last winter. I started coming up with ideas for a demo score, a project I added to my ever-growing list. It’s unfeasible, and not even fun anymore. Oh, it was fun to come up with track titles for character pieces and incidental cues, but if I actually had the technological capacity to produce this in the grand scope I envision with my mind’s ear, I would be better off putting that effort into something else. I mean, each of these cues would have been a serious effort to write something compositionally nuanced and complicated, not just the obvious angle of the already-too-commercialized “trailer music” sound of Ramin Djawadi or something.

My Gotham City was very different indeed. For example, some of my score models were Hellboy (Marco Beltrami), Alien 3 (Elliot Goldenthal), and Reign of Fire (Edward Shearmur). Going by those examples, the score would be bold and nasty at times, subdued and intricate at others.

It was a big idea and a fun concept to toy with. I thought I’d post about it to get rid of it. Not that I’m posting here as a “kiss of death” (since any unfinished idea I blog about seems to get axed), no, no… this is more of a eulogy for the idea.

I should have kept the idea at a vignette.

There. I blogged, it’s done, it’s dead. I killed it. I took it off my project list, so now I can sleep more easily. Because my life as a composer is an impossible pursuit of the day when my list of ideas on the backburner is completely empty.

That can never happen, nor should it.