
DATE: Thursday, June 19, 1997               TAG: 9706190052

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  188 lines

MORE MEN IN TIGHTSFRIDAY'S RELEASE OF ``BATMAN & ROBIN'' PROMISES MORE LAUGHS AND VILLAINS. BUT WILL IT BE TOO MUCH?

AFTER ALMOST 60 years, he's still the man who hides a social phenomenon beneath a cape and cowl.

Can anything stop Batman?

``Batman & Robin,'' swooping into more than 2,000 theaters nationwide on Friday, promises to be the latest blockbuster in a summer that is fast fulfilling its promise to be the most successful in movie history.

Or?

Or what? Could there be any doubt? Actually, in spite of a new Batman, a new Batmobile and an awesome all-star cast, there is some doubt about ``Batman & Robin.'' The studio has kept the film veiled in secrecy. The film itself was kept from critics until the last moment.

The buzz has been that the film, the second directed by Joel Schumacher, is another step away from the darkness of the Dark Knight and toward the wacky campiness of the 1966 TV series. The dark Gotham City of Tim Burton's memorable 1989 original film reportedly has been forgotten again in favor of Schumacher's three-ring circus - an overkill that was off-putting in ``Batman Forever,'' the third in the installment.

And yet, Batman and his stellar cast of villains have survived through seemingly endless adaptations, from a 1940s movie serial to the 1966 surprise hit of the campy TV series and varied animated series. Norfolk's Azalea Festival once featured a Batman and Robin ballet, choreographed by the late Gene Hammett.

Critics may have trashed it, but ``Batman Forever'' opened to a $52.7 million weekend gross - a record it held until ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' broke it only a few weeks ago.

``Batman & Robin'' bids to crank up the wattage even higher than ``Forever,'' with two campy villains (Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy), plus a couple of sidekicks (Chris O'Donnell returning as Robin, Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl). Schumacher seems to have elevated the frantic pace to a circus level. But there is little doubt that even the fans of a darker, more adult Batman will probably turn out, if, for nothing else, to see how far Schumacher will go.

They'll get a new Batman, George Clooney, trying to cement his crossover from TV, where he stars as hunky pediatrician Doug Ross on ``ER.'' He has the square jaw for the part, but is he a movie star? The jury is still out. His big-screen outings to date, ``From Dusk to Dawn'' (a critical disaster) and ``One Fine Day'' (a box office disappointment) have been less than auspicious.

Defying the studio's demands to keep quiet about everything Batman, Clooney said at the premiere of ``One Fine Day'' that he had talked with Michelle Pfeiffer, his co-star and a former Catwoman, about the rubber suits he would wear as Batman. Her advice: Demand that they put a trapdoor in the Batsuit. ``She also told me not to sweat, which is easier said than done. It's a miserable contraption. You can easily get claustrophobia in it.''

During the filming, Clooney was operating on a rough schedule. Mondays through Thursdays, he filmed ``ER.'' On Fridays through Sundays, he worked at Warner Bros. as Batman.

``I wanted the role,'' he said, ``and if a seven-day week is the only way to do it, then that's what I had to do.''

Clooney was promised something that none of the other movie Batmen has had, though - a sense of humor. When Michael Keaton was cast for the 1989 original, there were protests among the comic book faithful. They thought Keaton was too lightweight for the part. To the contrary, Keaton's two film versions, 1989's ``Batman'' and 1992's ``Batman Returns'' were both dark visages, with Batman playing second Bat-fiddle to his villains. Keaton, seemingly realizing that he was little more than a man in a rubber suit, bowed out.

Val Kilmer, the star of ``Batman Forever'' fared little better. He had a lucrative contract to continue but opted out in favor of more varied roles in ``The Ghost and the Darkness'' (a surprise hit) and ``The Saint'' (something of a box office disappointment).

Schumacher was surprisingly candid, stating that, ``I was secretly not sorry when Val pulled out. He was trouble on the set. I actually think he needs psychiatric aid. Why should I cover up for these stars who get huge salaries and don't want to do the work? Because they'll never work for me again? I'm not afraid. I'm overage, overpaid and overexposed. The only difference with me is that I'll admit it.''

The director also admits that he's purposefully lightened up the Batman image for this fourth installment.

``George is 35 years old. How many 35-year-old men do you know who sit around moping about the death of their father - still. The time for mourning is over. It couldn't last forever. The audience would say, `Why doesn't he get on with his life?' ''

Now, Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter-ego, is more concerned for Alfred Pennyworth, his beloved butler. The role is again played by Michael Gough, one of only two major cast members to have appeared in all four films. (The other is Pat Hingle, who plays Gotham City's usually befuddled Police Commissioner Gordon).

Bob Kane, the originator of Batman, had been laboring on humorous treatments for DC Comics before. In the 1930s, he tried more serious fare with things like ``Spark Stevens'' and ``Clip Carson.'' They didn't click, but his ``The Bat-Man'' did when it premiered in Detective Comics in May 1939.

He was inspired by the silent version of ``The Mark of Zorro,'' Mary Roberts Rinehart's mystery novel ``The Bat Whispers'' and Leonardo da Vinci's notebook drawing of a flying contraption called an ornithopter (a sled with bat-wings).

Chris O'Donnell returns as Robin, only this time, the writers clearly want him to mature. His earring is gone. Robin now has sibling rivalry with Batman, especially for the attention of Poison Ivy, the seductive new villainess.

O'Donnell, 26, admits that he's never taken an acting lesson, but has appeared, to date, in 12 movies. Schumacher has said that he first noticed the actor in ``Men Don't Leave,'' in which O'Donnell played Jessica Lange's teen-age son.

``Chris has matured a great deal since the last film and we wanted to reflect that in the film,'' Schumacher said. ``I was always worried that Val and Chris were too near the same age. Now, George is older.''

O'Donnell admits that he liked Kilmer in the role. ``I was one who was sorry to see Val go. I liked him in the role. George is fine. Different. George and I both have mischievous senses of humor. We play pranks on the set. George filled my convertible car with popcorn.''

At the end of filming, O'Donnell married 23-year-old kindergarten teacher Caroline Fentress. He met her when her older brother was his roommate at Boston College, where he majored in marketing.

`` `Batman Forever' really opened the floodgates for me, but I still was getting offered kid roles,'' he said. He actively campaigned to get ``The Chamber,'' an adaptation of a John Grisham novel, and ``In Love and War,'' in which he played author Ernest Hemingway.

The new film plans to take him further away from Dick Grayson and toward becoming a young man.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is cast as Mr. Freeze, the villain whose subzero temperature can only be maintained in his icy suit. Diamonds are needed to keep him cold. Freeze is concerned mainly with trying to thaw his wife, Nora, who was tragically iced in a misguided experiment in the past. Mr. Freeze, aided by his Icemen underlings, hopes to confiscate enough loot, via a Gotham City crime spree, to promote his experiments.

The part previously was played by Otto Preminger, George Sanders, and Eli Wallach on the TV series.

Schwarzenegger's costume was hand-pounded out of aluminum and weighs 45 pounds. The armored suit and helmet is illuminated from within by cool blue lights. (Mr. Freeze only can survive at 50 degrees below zero and he'd like to freeze the rest of the world, too).

His lounging outfit is a velvet robe with little polar bears, accessorized by fuzzy polar bear slippers, complete with fangs. He's painted silver and then airbrushed white with blue dots in a makeup trauma that lasted three hours each day. The touch is completed by opalescent contact lenses.

Poison Ivy, the green-vined villainess, is played by Oscar-nominee (``Pulp Fiction'') Uma Thurman. The long-necked beauty, who first appeared to movie fans rising from a half-shell in ``The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,'' plays a kind of vine-covered devil-woman who carries Love Dust, a lethal poison, in her compact. She wants to turn the world green. She is infatuated with Mr. Freeze but he loves only the memory of his frozen wife.

Thurman, at one time, wears a magenta gorilla suit made from 450 dyed Santa Claus wigs dipped with black roots and tips. (The studio swears to this.)

For the most part, she's required to be very green and floral-like. Initially she has red hair, but it changes to pink, bright oranges and yellows.

Batgirl's origins have been markedly changed from the comic book history. The first Batgirl was actually Betty Kane, niece and sidekick of Batwoman. They were both introduced in April 1961. In 1966, Batgirl re-appeared on television as the alter-ego of Barbara Gordon, daughter of Police Commissioner Gordon. For the movie, she now becomes the niece of the butler Alfred.

Alicia Silverstone rose to instant stardom in ``Clueless,'' the critically acclaimed high-school comedy. Although still in her 20s, she was given a multi-million dollar seven-year contract to produce films. She plans to star in only a few of her own productions.

Schumacher has said he wanted to include Batgirl in order to give young girls their own heroine.

John Glover, who won Broadway's Tony Award for playing twins in ``Love! Valour! Compassion!,'' is cast as the mad scientist Dr. Jason Woodrue. Vivica A. Fox, who was in last summer's hit ``Independence Day,'' is Mrs. B. Haven, with shades of silvers and blues.

At number four, Batman pulls ahead of both ``Star Wars'' and Indiana Jones in length-of-series and makes a bold bid to become the most lengthy series blockbuster since James Bond. There is a danger, though, that the series might get too wacky and irritate the more faithful fans. There is no fear that it isn't enough. The worry is that it might be too much.

Anything less than a $100 million gross would be considered a Batdisaster. ILLUSTRATION: Christine Loss color photos/DC comics

An all-star cast of characters comes together for the fourth

installment of the Batman series. From left, Arnold Schwarzenegger

is Mr. Freeze, George Clooney is the Caped Crusader, Chris O'Donnell

is Robin and Alicia Silverstone is Batgirl.

Photos

CHRISTINE LOSS/Warner Bros.

Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), center, talks with Batman (George Clooney)

and Robin (Chris O'Donnell) in the new movie ``Batman & Robin.''

Director Joel Schumacher reportedly took the mood of the second

sequel toward the campiness of the old ``Batman'' TV series.