Production Hell - Batgirl (What REALLY Happened)

It’s hilarious how these studios just don’t understand that if they gave what the fans wanted they’d make money hand over fist.

Such a shame Keatons Batman was wasted on this and Flash. He should have been given a Batman Beyond movie as a finale to the Burton universe. Every Hollywood studio seems to be so out of touch now, no understanding of their franchises or characters. Or audience for that matter.

I built the scale model of the fire engine at Shepperton studios. Was on set to film the action scenes. It actually looked amazing. So you can imagine how disappointed myself and others were when it got shelved.

I can’t even put into words how upset I would be if I’d worked on a film that got completely erased

It still blows my mind that The Flash, Shazam 2, and Birds of Prey were allowed to be seen by viewers yet Batgirl wasn't. I was actually more interested in seeing Michael Keaton in this movie instead of The Flash.

This was the nicest thing I have ever heard about Batgirl. They can’t say you weren’t fair.

Okay, that fire engine drifting? THAT IS AWESOME. And the fact that Yvonne Craig Batgirl always entered the room hips first is just absolutely fantastic. But that's it. It's pretty sad I find none of the BTS footage of Batgirl even remotely interesting.

This is an eye opener for me. I always assumed that a film or tv project was written and cast well in advance, budgets settled, locations secured, all of the technical staff engaged, a filming start date settled. What I’m hearing now is that a bunch of incompetent unprofessionals flap around like headless chickens in a total panic as they chop and change everything from one day to the next and demand an ever bigger budget to fix their problems. Obviously there are a lot of people in the film industry these days who aren’t up to the job.

To my genuine, absolute shock, that basic plot concept idea you gave ACTUALLY DOESN'T SOUND THAT BAD. I'm surprised. VERY surprised. It's a... reasonable sounding concept. Of course, it would've been utterly butchered and probably would've flopped completely; but y'know.

This is hilarious. We all thought Batgirl was going to be an unmitigated joke, only for it to turn out "I mean, it wasn't bad. Rough around the edges, but could have been salvagable." But the studio was like "TACTICAL NUKE!"

I had a friend who was working as an extra for the Batgirl movie, they had scenes to shoot in Glasgow, he told me there was more partying than shooting the movie and most of the concentration was at the partying and drinking.

Walter Hamada: "Christina Hodson wrote one of our biggest flops Birds of Prey... Oh I know what to do! Let's hire her to write Batgirl and the Flash as well!"

Such a shame we'll never get to see Brandon Fraser as Firefly.

What always amazes me is how poorly execs can do and retain their jobs. Even getting millions on the way out. While normal people get the axe over something minor.

Personally I think the biggest problem with both Marvel and DC is that they are both constantly trying to compete with each other, bring out as much content as possible, as fast as possible instead of taking a step back and take account what all do they need for their movies. It seems like reshoots have become way too common on recent years as though they are in a rush to start production without having a finished scripts and figuring it out as they go.

This story sounds very familiar to a situation a friend of mine went through some time ago. In the early 2000's, he was a lead QA manager at a small indy game development studio. They were mostly known for a handful of games released to the Xbox arcade that had been well received. Eventually, they gained that attention of a large publisher that presented a game concept they wanted the studio to develop for them. The concept appeared to match the strengths of the dev studio, so they signed the deal and began working on the game. And, as was the case with Batgirl, the publishers started sending conflicting demands for the tone and direction of the game during the final 6 months of development. The publisher made the final 6 months hell, but the studio managed to complete each milestone and deliver the finished product. However, around that time the Publisher was having its annual meeting with retailers. Remember, this was back in the early 00's before digital distribution would catch on. So, publishers were still heavily reliant on the retail conglomerates of the day. And those retailers took one look at the game, and decided that its specific niche was already over-saturated and they weren't interested in carrying it. So, with the retailers passing, the publisher just completely pulled the plug and cancelled what was already a finished game.

I love when The Drinker does these production hell videos. The one he did on Waterworld is probably the best of them all, and I hope he does more in the future.

"You don't need hundreds of millions of dollars to make a successful superhero film" is a message both Warner and Disney really could have used a couple of years ago. A bit sorry the movie never got released for that reason alone, now. Not that success was a given, of course, but... damn.

I have been following this channel for a very long time and I have to say... It is truly inspiring how you have become a cornerstone of film reviews. You always offered thoughtful analysis, a fun narrative, and a proper assessment of plot, writing, and direction. Simply put, you applied your passion to this and set the gold standard for online film reviews.... now you are interviewing people like Russell Crowe and Chris Jericho and deconstructing films by speaking to people behind the scenes. Its been amazing watching you evolve from a talented YouTuber to a proper influencer on pop culture. You deserve all your success Drinker. Please don't ever abandon your formula. I always look forward to your content.

The way you explained the plot sounds like a movie I would've loved to watch if it actually went down that way.