Going Bat to the future

George Clooney's comment must have caused a collective panic attack among Hollywood executives. "You know, I think we might have buried that franchise," said the actor, reflecting on the sorry cinematic mess that was the movie Batman And Robin.

His one and only time wearing the crimefighter's cape and cowl was not judged a success by critics or, perhaps more importantly, Bat-fans. Clooney was honest enough to admit it.

A movie franchise which had been a licence to print money stalled as Joel Schumacher's camp, over-dressed Batman And Robin brought the series to a premature halt eight years ago.

This was bad news for makers Warner Brothers who were still trying to resuscitate another lucrative comic strip franchise, Superman. In a moment of desperation, producers toyed with the idea of making Batman Vs Superman, working on the theory that two crimefighters are better than one. Two of the screen's hottest properties were considered - Jude Law as Superman and Colin Farrell as Batman - before it was decided that more profit would be made by separate franchises.

So Warner is spending $180m on Batman Begins in a bid to revive the Bat franchise. With the caped crusader finally set to reappear in Superman Returns, two of the cinema's biggest franchises are back in action.

It's fitting that the two comic strip heroes should be flying again at the same time as Warner picked up the Bat franchise in 1979 after having a major hit with Superman starring Christopher Reeve.

The Bat came out of development hell after director Tim Burton was signed, although his dark take on the Dark Knight caused clashes with the producers. Even the choice of Michael Keaton, best known for comedic roles, was criticised as too lightweight.

With Star Wars, George Lucas had shown the financial benefits of merchandising. With Jaws, Steven Spielberg introduced the concept of the summer blockbuster. Batman brought both together to demonstrate the profitability of the franchise movie.

These are films with built-in interest and a potentially massive audience. Franchises give studios something they can count on. "Putting out movies is a lot like launching a new model car every weekend, you never know what will work," says one top executive. "What's great about a franchise is that you get to start with nearly universal awareness. In a business of unknowns, it gives you a bit of security."

Successful ones provide studios with steady income and offset the gambles that don't pay off. Only a handful of movie stars, like Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks, are guaranteed to sell a movie. But a franchise like Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Alien and Spider-Man can pay big dividends without the need for star power or having to pay mega-salaries to big names.

Batman was the first to show just how lucrative a franchise could be, becoming the first film to make $100m in its first ten days of release. More important was income from global merchandising, with the makers granting 100 licences to companies to market Bat-related items. They generated three times as much revenue as tickets for the movie.

Superman only needed his superstrength, whereas Batman needed assistance from gadgets and gizmos, which were eminently marketable by toy companies. The $50m budget was augmented by a $20m spend on advertising, including merchandising and licensing deals.

Merchandisers were given unprecedented access to the set during production. "Cereal manufacturers and fast food companies, who wanted to make bat-shaped toys and hamburgers, were looking over my shoulder the whole time. It was quite horrifying," recalls Burton.

Producer Peter Guber tells how Batman tested the boundaries of how enormous merchandising could be driven by toy manufacturers. "They helped promote the film, which helped promote the merchandising, which helped promote the sequel," he says.

Batman And Robin proved a sequel too far. The problem wasn't just the nippled Batsuit or even Schumacher's direction, which put style over substance. The makers were accused of putting more thought into merchandising than the film itself.

The odd miss isn't about to deter film-makers from finding new franchises and exploiting old ones. Comic strips are a good source of material. Spider-Man and X-Men have established themselves in recent years. Director Sam Raimi, who made the two Spider-Man movies, is now directing Superman Returns.

This seems a natural move as his interest in the caped crusader dates back to the first Christopher Reeve film. "It was the Richard Donner classic that was my day-to-day inspiration in shaping the X-Men universe for the screen," he says.

Film-maker George Lucas has seen Star Wars emerge as one of the movie industry's biggest franchises. One that doesn't end with the release of the final episode Revenge Of The Sith. The story will continue on TV, ensuring that the demand for merchandise doesn't diminish. After launching the final Star Wars movie, he headed back home to work on the script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie.

The James Bond series remains the longest-running franchise. Since the release of Dr No in 1962, the series has weathered actors coming and going as 007, proving that the character is bigger than the person playing him.

Some have seen the delay in going into production with the 21st James Bond film as a sign that the producers didn't know how to top the last one, Die Another Day, the highest-grossing so far.

They too are going back to basics - and the first Ian Fleming novel, Casino Royale, and a director, Martin Campbell, who's helmed several previous 007 adventures. Even the lack of an actor to replace Pierce Brosan as Bond hasn't stopped an opening date of November next year being set.

Getting a new Superman before the cameras has been a long, drawn-out process since the last one, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, in 1987. Reviving Batman has been equally traumatic. Money appears to have been no object, considering five Batmobiles were built at a cost of $1m each.

British director Christopher Nolan was considered an odd choice to direct Batman Begins as his previous films, Memento and Insomnia, have been more intimate affairs. He approached Warner Bros once he heard they wanted a fresh approach to Batman.

"I thought they would be open to what I wanted to do, which was to take on the origins of the character and take on the character in a realistic fashion, which hadn't been done before for any comic book character," he says. "I convinced them of what I wanted to do. Thankfully, they seemed very receptive to it."

The epic film is on a different scale to his past work, but his influences were some of the biggest franchises around. "It's a different register if you like, but very much something I care about and very much the kind of film I had seen as a boy and loved. These great, grand, epic escapist entertainments like the first Star Wars film, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Spy Who Loved Me."

The ending of Batman Begins sets the scene for the sequel that will inevitably follow if the movie hits the box-office jackpot.

Not all hit movies lend themselves to franchises. Hollywood producers must be furious that the highest grossing film of all time, Titanic, couldn't be turned into a franchise - although you can bet that someone somewhere in Hollywood is still trying to find a way of raising the Titanic.

* Batman Begins (12A) opens in cinemas on Thursday.