In the 1980's, Pierce Brosnan broke into the big time with his debut on the NBC detective comedy Remington Steele. Unfortunately, his success with that show was so great that his contractual obligations stopped him from becoming James Bond once Roger Moore left the series after 1985's A View To A Kill. Up until now, that was the biggest opportunity that we knew Brosnan lost out on in what's been a pretty awesome career. As of today, that's changed as we learned that Pierce Brosnan was considered by Tim Burton for the lead role in Batman.
During his AMA on Reddit, Brosnan was asked by a random fan if he ever was considered for the Batman. The fan in question thought he would have made a great actor in the role, but unfortunately for them, Pierce Brosnan confirmed and crushed their dream casting in the statement below.
Yes, I did. I went and met with Tim Burton for the role of Batman. But I just couldn't really take it seriously, any man who wears his underpants outside his pants just cannot be taken seriously. That was my foolish take on it. It was a joke, I thought. But how wrong was I?
Before anyone gets the idea that Brosnan is going all Frank Miller on the public here, he did offer the following disclaimer in the same breath.
Don't get me wrong, because I love Batman, and I grew up on Batman. As a kid in Ireland, we used to get our raincoats and tie them round our neck and swing through the bicycle shed.
So it doesn't look like Pierce Brosnan thinks the character is a joke, but instead it looks like he didn't like the direction Tim Burton looked set to take the franchise towards, only to admit defeat after losing out. Still, the fact that even Tim Burton thought the man who would be Bond was a contender for Batman is pretty awesome; and the two eventually did work together on the "you either get it or you don't" masterpiece Mars Attacks, so it's not a total loss.
Were Pierce Brosnan to have taken the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, the public might not have been so up in arms with his casting. After all, his filmography at the time had him in films like Taffin (as seen in the header picture) -- which showed off his action side -- or The Heist, which showed him in charming thief mode. Brosnan could have used those two films to sell the public on his casting easily. However, without the controversy around Michael Keaton's casting, we might have had a harder time even getting actors like Christian Bale or Ben Affleck in the role, because the public wouldn't have been served the wonderful slice of humble pie they were treated to when Batman opened on June 23, 1989. All said and done, everything worked out for the best, and we've got the films to prove it!
You can see Pierce Brosnan return to kicking ass in The November Man on August 27th.
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