This is a very fast-moving, entertaining 11-minute look at building the Dark Knight's first Batmobile. (Sorry: no direct video-embed allowed...)

http://www.videobash.com/video_show/building-the-batmobile-316929

That was awesome!!!  It really makes you think what we really could build....

VERY cool video!

It's strange that the Batmobile was the subject of a discussion I was involved in during a recent neighborhood euchre party. There arose an argument about the original 1960s TV Batmobile, with some saying it was based on a Lincoln, some claiming a Chevy, and one swearing it was a Pontiac GTO (clearly this dude has Monkee brains). Those old enough to remember the old series remember this awesome piece of rolling coolness:



I was amazed to learn -- after doing some research -- that this first video Batmobile was based on the Lincoln Futura, a one-off concept car from 1955!! It originally looked like this:



It really was a "one-off;" only one was ever built, though it was repainted red and used in the 1959 Debbie Reynolds/Glenn Ford movie It Started With A Kiss. This shot is of a replica:



Famous auto "kustomizer" George Barris owned the car in 1966, and used it as the basis for the TV Batmobile. He still owns it today.

I remember hearing the story about the Bat mobile being thrown away, and some guy and his kid bought it from the wrecking yard for a scream.
They restored it and the rest is history.

Neat video.
How come they never mentioned the mileage that thing gets?

Quote from: quiller on July 15, 2012, 10:00:31 PM
This is a very fast-moving, entertaining 11-minute look at building the Dark Knight's first Batmobile. (Sorry: no direct video-embed allowed...)

http://www.videobash.com/video_show/building-the-batmobile-316929

That was an excellent video, but my favorite is still the Batmobile from the 1960's series.

I too grew up with the Barris-version Batmobile, which was a perfect fit to the over-the-top TV series. But when DC Comics shifted into its Dark Knight era, the crooks our Bat-a-roony went after suddenly became a whole lot meaner in print than anything I'd seen in my youth.

The vehicle in the modern series does represent the spirit of our times. Nolan's crew got it absolutely right. I haven't seen the third film yet, so I can't comment on his newest ride.

It makes you wonder why we never saw any "Biff", "Bop", or "Pow" in the older recent movies; especially when Batman went up against Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy.  I like the new movies with Christian Bale, and the new Batmobile is just a monster of a machine, but there are times that a throwback to the old days would be fun.

Quote from: Ford289HiPo on July 24, 2012, 03:43:23 PM
It makes you wonder why we never saw any "Biff", "Bop", or "Pow" in the older recent movies; especially when Batman went up against Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy.  I like the new movies with Christian Bale, and the new Batmobile is just a monster of a machine, but there are times that a throwback to the old days would be fun.

Actually, I though Michael Keaton did a fine job in Batman back in 1989. Hell, he was fightin' Jack Nicholson and f***in' Kim Basinger. Throw in a little Jack Palance and Pat Hingle... AND he's toolin' around in the best-looking Batmobile EVAH!!!



Sorry, kids, I don't care what the historians and the car buffs say -- I owned a C3 Corvette. THAT Batmobile is based on the muscular, marvelous curves of a C3 Corvette.  It looks like the one I had with a jet engine shoved down its throat.

Quote from: tbone0106 on July 24, 2012, 05:59:39 PM
Actually, I though Michael Keaton did a fine job in Batman back in 1989. Hell, he was fightin' Jack Nicholson and f***in' Kim Basinger. Throw in a little Jack Palance and Pat Hingle... AND he's toolin' around in the best-looking Batmobile EVAH!!!



Sorry, kids, I don't care what the historians and the car buffs say -- I owned a C3 Corvette. THAT Batmobile is based on the muscular, marvelous curves of a C3 Corvette.  It looks like the one I had with a jet engine shoved down its throat.

I agree on all counts about the Keaton series. Consider if you will how the comics had supplied numerous films of that same era (and many before them). Dick Tracy, The Shadow, Popeye, and others ALL had that "comicky" comfortable feel of unreality. Small wonder Roger Rabbit did so well as a crossover into animation as well.

Films change with their times. Cagney smashing a grapefruit into his moll's face is an enduring image. Nowadays it's extended and includes car batteries and pails of water. Nowadays few films take the time like Michael Mann did in Heat to solidly build both the gangster and the cop. I miss that in a good crime film...and that's no oxymoron.

Quote from: quiller on July 31, 2012, 07:27:15 AM
Small wonder Roger Rabbit did so well as a crossover into animation as well.

Roger Rabbit was animated? 

A-HA!!! Just as I suspected. A bit of research yielded the fact that the Michael Keaton Batman and Batman Returns Batmobile was, in fact, based on the Chevrolet Corvette.

Those curves are unmistakable.

Quote from: Ford289HiPo on July 31, 2012, 08:46:34 PM
Roger Rabbit was animated? 

Literally, yes. Unfortunately, so was Jessica Rabbit, the single most brilliant cartoon vamp in the history of animation (and the ONLY vamp to beat the legendary Hot Lips Houlihan on Jimmy Durante's old time radio show).

It's that Hoskins guy you ought to wonder about.  Notice the brush marks around the....