History Trivia / Catwoman

** Artist Adam Hughes also admits he models Catwoman after Creator/AudreyHepburn.

! Trivia for the film:

* AllStarCast: Creator/HalleBerry, Creator/SharonStone and Creator/BenjaminBratt were in the lead roles.
* AwesomeDearBoy: Berry originally said that she did the film because she wanted the awesome experience of playing a woman beholden to no one. However, in an illustration that Hollywood acknowledges the power of this trope, it turned out that she was only saying this for publicity's sake; she later gave an interview saying that she mainly did it because she was under contract (thus beholden to people).
* BoxOfficeBomb: It only brought back over $80 million of its over $100 million budget, making it a spectacularly expensive failure. Interestingly, it ''was'' the highest grossing female-led superhero film until ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' - not a tough competition, but still notable.
* CreatorBacklash: Director Pitof and his production designer Jean Rabasse disliked the film's plot and script. They even suggested another plot which they had thought together, but execs rejected it for being supposedly "too artistic".
* CreatorKiller: This film killed whatever hopes its director, Jean-Christophe "Pitof" Comar, might've had of breaking into American cinema as a frontline director. Even back in Europe, Pitof has only directed one more film since, and it's a TV movie.
* DeletedScene:
** Patience and Laurel have a conversation about George's scheme. It was left intact in the novelization.
** An alternate ending has Patience go with Tom. This was left intact in the video game.
* GenreKiller:
** The failure of both ''Catwoman'' and ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' was a major reason that studios became so skittish about female superhero movies. Of course, this has resulted in numerous accusations that it was just being used as a cheap excuse, acting like their both being such awful movies couldn't be a factor in no one wanting to see them. It took the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse's ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' more than a decade later to eventually prove that a female-led superhero movie can succeed critically and financially.
** Likewise, the failure of this film was also one of the reasons for which studios became unwilling to do any more superhero movies focused on villains. Another superhero film centered on a villain would not be made until Creator/SonyPictures released ''Film/{{Venom|2018}}'' fourteen years later, which was negatively received as well, yet audiences mostly loved it. In the end, it wasn't until the next year that Creator/WarnerBros released ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}'' to universal acclaim, effectively redeeming themselves from the disaster ''Catwoman'' was and demonstrating that bad guys have a possibility of shining on the big screen.
* HostilityOnTheSet: According to insiders, Sharon Stone was difficult to work with for this film, among other reasons because she personally disliked Benjamin Bratt (she had previously vetoed his casting from ''Film/BasicInstinct2'' claiming he was a bad actor). While shooting a scene, Stone's mobile phone rang, and she nonchalantly interrupted the scene to take the call.
* NoStuntDouble: Berry did several of her stunts herself, especially regarding her whip play, which she trained extensively to be able to use. Said whip stunts were highlighted on the press circuit, where Berry performed a whip crack numerous times. In another of the stunts, she suffered an accident during a chase scene and had to be briefly hospitalized.
* OldShame:
** For Miss Berry in years to come:
--->''First of all, I want to thank Creator/WarnerBros. Thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, God-awful movie[...] It was just what my career needed.''
*** The context for that quote: She said it at the [[http://www.agonybooth.com/video328_Catwoman_2004_Halle_Berry.aspx Razzies]] as [[MedalOfDishonor she accepted her award for "Worst Actress"]]. The entire time, she was holding her Oscar for ''Film/MonstersBall'' in the other hand, publicly reminding people that she is usually a good actress; the movie was just THAT bad. Razzies founder John Wilson even remarked that after seeing this, he expects Berry to run for the Oscar again.
** In addition to Berry, the film also became a big shame for co-writer Creator/JohnRogers.
** This also happened with one of the film's VFX vendors, Creator/TippettStudio, who actually went out of their way to point out that the only effects they did in the film were the cats. They've since furthered their distance from the film by not even making ''any'' mention of it on their site.
** Averted with Creator/AlexBorstein, who loved doing it and asked Halle Berry on Instagram if she remembered it.
* RecycledScript:
** As often noted on the web, the film bears a striking resemblance to ''Franchise/TheCrow''. In fact, the movie's first trailer was alleged to have the same narration script as ''Franchise/TheCrow'''s own trailer - only changing the respective animal.
** The romantic basketball game between Patience and the detective was lifted verbatim from ''Film/{{Daredevil}}''.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: According to one of the writers, "insane legal issues" prevented Selina Kyle being the main character.
* StarDerailingRole: For Halle Berry, and it was also the beginning of the end for Creator/SharonStone's time in the upper tiers of stars.
* StillbornFranchise:
** Creator/HalleBerry signed for a sequel but after all the bad reviews, development on the sequel was quickly squashed. This also made her available for the [[Film/XMenTheLastStand third]] ''[[Film/XMenTheLastStand X-Men]]'' [[Film/XMenTheLastStand film]]; she rejoined that series, but allegedly got paid less for her role that go round.
** The film also managed the impressive feat of killing off an unrelated series before it could even really begin; a film starring Berry's ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' character Jinx had been in development for the previous two years, but the critical and commercial failure of this film killed that one too.
* StuntDouble: Creator/ZoeBell did stunt work on the movie. She performed high falls and acted as a double for Creator/SharonStone.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The film was originally a {{spinoff}} from ''Film/BatmanReturns'', and would have followed Selena (intended to be played once again by Creator/MichellePfeiffer) as she supposedly took on a new enemy during a stay at a resort. The script was written by Daniel Waters and completed in 1995 (ironically, on the same day ''Film/BatmanForever'' was released), but both Creator/TimBurton and Pfeiffer dropped out soon after and the film was stuck in DevelopmentHell for years.
** Creator/AshleyJudd and Creator/NicoleKidman were originally considered to play Patience, and the character's surname was originally ''Price''.
** An early draft of the script had Patience becoming Catwoman to avenge her mother's death.
** The ComicBookAdaptation was based on an earlier script for the movie, deviating from the final film a few places. The biggest alteration is that Tom discovers that Patience is Catwoman much earlier, finding her mask and letting her know his discovery just after their love-making scene, incidentally excising [[IdiotBall the infamous handwriting subplot]]. The ending is also different in that [[spoiler:instead of Patience [[ButNowIMustGo leaving him to live on independently as Catwoman]], the two decide to stay together]].
** Originally, "Outrageous" from Music/BritneySpears was supposed to be the single from the movie. However, Britney injured her knee while filming the music video. With no video to promote the single, they instead used "Scandalous" by Music/MisTeeq.
** The [[https://dcanimated.com//WF/batman/btas/backstage/interviews/kirkland.php scrapped]] DirectToVideo animated spinoff film would've had Patience meeting Selina along with delving deeper in the Egyptian mythology of the film, which would've satisfied fans of the titular character.
----
* This movie managed to become the second comic book movie and the first superhero-themed one to win the Worst Picture [[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Razzie]]; 2015's infamous attempted [[Film/FantasticFour2015 Fantastic Four reboot]] became the second superhero film and third comic-book movie 11 years later. The other comic-book movie with a Worst Picture Razzie is 1986's ''Film/HowardTheDuck''.

!!Trivia for the video game:
* TheOtherDarrin: Every actor except for Frances Conroy got replaced by a voice double.
* TheOtherMarty: Halle Berry voiced Patience in the first level but the rest of her dialogue was provided by Jennifer Hale.

!!Trivia for the comics:

** Artist Adam Hughes also admits he models Catwoman after Creator/AudreyHepburn.
----

* NoStuntDouble: Berry did several of her stunts herself, especially regarding her whip play, which she trained extensively to be able to use. In another of the stunts, she suffered an accident during a chase scene and had to be briefly hospitalized.

! Trivia for the film:

* AllStarCast: Creator/HalleBerry, Creator/SharonStone and Creator/BenjaminBratt were in the lead roles.
* AwesomeDearBoy: Berry originally said that she did the film because she wanted the awesome experience of playing a woman beholden to no one. However, in an illustration that Hollywood acknowledges the power of this trope, it turned out that she was only saying this for publicity's sake; she later gave an interview saying that she mainly did it because she was under contract (thus beholden to people).
* BoxOfficeBomb: It only brought back over $80 million of its over $100 million budget, making it a spectacularly expensive failure. Interestingly, it ''was'' the highest grossing female-led superhero film until ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' - not a tough competition, but still notable.
* CreatorBacklash: Director Pitof and his production designer Jean Rabasse disliked the film's plot and script. They even suggested another plot which they had thought together, but execs rejected it for being supposedly "too artistic".
* CreatorKiller: This film killed whatever hopes its director, Jean-Christophe "Pitof" Comar, might've had of breaking into American cinema as a frontline director. Even back in Europe, Pitof has only directed one more film since, and it's a TV movie.
* DeletedScene:
** Patience and Laurel have a conversation about George's scheme. It was left intact in the novelization.
** An alternate ending has Patience go with Tom. This was left intact in the video game.
* GenreKiller:
** The failure of both ''Catwoman'' and ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' was a major reason that studios became so skittish about female superhero movies. Of course, this has resulted in numerous accusations that it was just being used as a cheap excuse, acting like their both being such awful movies couldn't be a factor in no one wanting to see them. It took the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse's ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' more than a decade later to eventually prove that a female-led superhero movie can succeed critically and financially.
** Likewise, the failure of this film was also one of the reasons for which studios became unwilling to do any more superhero movies focused on villains. Another superhero film centered on a villain would not be made until Creator/SonyPictures released ''Film/{{Venom|2018}}'' fourteen years later, which was negatively received as well, yet audiences mostly loved it. In the end, it wasn't until the next year that Creator/WarnerBros released ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}'' to universal acclaim, effectively redeeming themselves from the disaster ''Catwoman'' was and demonstrating that bad guys have a possibility of shining on the big screen.
* HostilityOnTheSet: According to insiders, Sharon Stone was difficult to work with for this film, among other reasons because she personally disliked Benjamin Bratt (she had previously vetoed his casting from ''Film/BasicInstinct2'' claiming he was a bad actor). While shooting a scene, Stone's mobile phone rang, and she nonchalantly interrupted the scene to take the call.
* NoStuntDouble: Berry did several of her stunts herself, especially regarding her whip play, which she trained extensively to be able to use. In another of the stunts, she suffered an accident during a chase scene and had to be briefly hospitalized.
* OldShame:
** For Miss Berry in years to come:
--->''First of all, I want to thank Creator/WarnerBros. Thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, God-awful movie[...] It was just what my career needed.''
*** The context for that quote: She said it at the [[http://www.agonybooth.com/video328_Catwoman_2004_Halle_Berry.aspx Razzies]] as [[MedalOfDishonor she accepted her award for "Worst Actress"]]. The entire time, she was holding her Oscar for ''Film/MonstersBall'' in the other hand, publicly reminding people that she is usually a good actress; the movie was just THAT bad. Razzies founder John Wilson even remarked that after seeing this, he expects Berry to run for the Oscar again.
** In addition to Berry, the film also became a big shame for co-writer Creator/JohnRogers.
** This also happened with one of the film's VFX vendors, Creator/TippettStudio, who actually went out of their way to point out that the only effects they did in the film were the cats. They've since furthered their distance from the film by not even making ''any'' mention of it on their site.
** Averted with Creator/AlexBorstein, who loved doing it and asked Halle Berry on Instagram if she remembered it.
* RecycledScript:
** As often noted on the web, the film bears a striking resemblance to ''Franchise/TheCrow''. In fact, the movie's first trailer was alleged to have the same narration script as ''Franchise/TheCrow'''s own trailer - only changing the respective animal.
** The romantic basketball game between Patience and the detective was lifted verbatim from ''Film/{{Daredevil}}''.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: According to one of the writers, "insane legal issues" prevented Selina Kyle being the main character.
* StarDerailingRole: For Halle Berry, and it was also the beginning of the end for Creator/SharonStone's time in the upper tiers of stars.
* StillbornFranchise:
** Creator/HalleBerry signed for a sequel but after all the bad reviews, development on the sequel was quickly squashed. This also made her available for the [[Film/XMenTheLastStand third]] ''[[Film/XMenTheLastStand X-Men]]'' [[Film/XMenTheLastStand film]]; she rejoined that series, but allegedly got paid less for her role that go round.
** The film also managed the impressive feat of killing off an unrelated series before it could even really begin; a film starring Berry's ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' character Jinx had been in development for the previous two years, but the critical and commercial failure of this film killed that one too.
* StuntDouble: Creator/ZoeBell did stunt work on the movie. She performed high falls and acted as a double for Creator/SharonStone.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The film was originally a {{spinoff}} from ''Film/BatmanReturns'', and would have followed Selena (intended to be played once again by Creator/MichellePfeiffer) as she supposedly took on a new enemy during a stay at a resort. The script was written by Daniel Waters and completed in 1995 (ironically, on the same day ''Film/BatmanForever'' was released), but both Creator/TimBurton and Pfeiffer dropped out soon after and the film was stuck in DevelopmentHell for years.
** Creator/AshleyJudd and Creator/NicoleKidman were originally considered to play Patience, and the character's surname was originally ''Price''.
** An early draft of the script had Patience becoming Catwoman to avenge her mother's death.
** The ComicBookAdaptation was based on an earlier script for the movie, deviating from the final film a few places. The biggest alteration is that Tom discovers that Patience is Catwoman much earlier, finding her mask and letting her know his discovery just after their love-making scene, incidentally excising [[IdiotBall the infamous handwriting subplot]]. The ending is also different in that [[spoiler:instead of Patience [[ButNowIMustGo leaving him to live on independently as Catwoman]], the two decide to stay together]].
** Originally, "Outrageous" from Music/BritneySpears was supposed to be the single from the movie. However, Britney injured her knee while filming the music video. With no video to promote the single, they instead used "Scandalous" by Music/MisTeeq.
** The [[https://dcanimated.com//WF/batman/btas/backstage/interviews/kirkland.php scrapped]] DirectToVideo animated spinoff film would've had Patience meeting Selina along with delving deeper in the Egyptian mythology of the film, which would've satisfied fans of the titular character.
----
* This movie managed to become the second comic book movie and the first superhero-themed one to win the Worst Picture [[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Razzie]]; 2015's infamous attempted [[Film/FantasticFour2015 Fantastic Four reboot]] became the second superhero film and third comic-book movie 11 years later. The other comic-book movie with a Worst Picture Razzie is 1986's ''Film/HowardTheDuck''.

!!Trivia for the video game:
* TheOtherDarrin: Every actor except for Frances Conroy got replaced by a voice double.
* TheOtherMarty: Halle Berry voiced Patience in the first level but the rest of her dialogue was provided by Jennifer Hale.

!!Trivia for the comics:

** The film was originally a {{spinoff}} from ''Film/BatmanReturns'', and would have followed Selena (intended to be played once again by Creator/MichellePfeiffer) as she supposedly took on a new enemy during a stay at a resort. The script was written by Daniel Waters and completed in 1995 (ironically, on the same day ''Film/BatmanForever'' was released), but both Creator/TimBurton and Pfeiffer dropped out soon after and the film was stuck in DevelopmentHell for years. By the time it was picked up, a law had been passed against making good superhero movies or something.

* AllStarCast: Not that it ''helps'' at all in this particular movie's case...
* AwesomeDearBoy: Creator/HalleBerry originally said that she did the film because she wanted the awesome experience of playing a woman beholden to no one. However, in an illustration that Hollywood acknowledges the power of this trope, it turned out that she was only saying this for publicity's sake; she later gave an interview saying that she mainly did it because she was under contract (thus beholden to people).
* BoxOfficeBomb: It only brought back over $80 million of its over $100 million budget, making it a spectacularly expensive failure.
* CreatorKiller: This film killed whatever hopes Pitof, its director, might've had of breaking into American cinema as a frontline director. Pitof has only directed one more film since, and it's a TV movie.

** Likewise, the failure of this film was also one of the reasons for which studios became unwilling to do any more superhero movies focused on villains. Another superhero film centered on a villain would not be made until Creator/SonyPictures released ''Film/{{Venom|2018}}'' fourteen years later, which was negatively received as well, yet audiences loved it. In the end, it wasn't until the next year that Creator/WarnerBros released ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}'' to universal acclaim, effectively redeeming themselves from the disaster ''Catwoman'' was and demonstrating that bad guys have a possibility of shining on the big screen.

* CreatorKiller: This film killed whatever hopes its director, Pitof, might've had of breaking into American cinema as a frontline director. Pitof has only directed one more film since, and it's a TV movie.
* GenreKiller: The failure of both this film and ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' was a major reason that studios became so skittish about female superhero movies. Of course, this has resulted in numerous accusations that it was just being used as a cheap excuse, acting like their both being such awful movies couldn't be a factor in no one wanting to see them. It took the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse's ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' more than a decade later to eventually prove that a female-led superhero movie can succeed critically and financially.

* AllStarCast: Not that it ''helps'' in this particular movie's case any...

** The context for that quote: She said it at the [[http://www.agonybooth.com/video328_Catwoman_2004_Halle_Berry.aspx Razzies]] as [[MedalOfDishonor she accepted her award for "Worst Actress"]]. The entire time, she was holding her Oscar for ''Monster's Ball'' in the other hand. Publicly reminding people that she is usually a good actress; the movie was just THAT bad. Razzies founder John Wilson even remarked that after seeing this, he expects Berry to run for the Oscar again.

** This also happened with one of the film's VFX vendors, Creator/TippettStudio, who actually went out of their way to point out the only effects they did in the film were the cats, at one point. They've since furthered their distance from the film by not even making ''any'' mention of it on their site.

* This movie managed to become the second comic book movie and the first superhero-themed one to win the Worst Picture [[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Razzie]]; 2015's infamous attempted reboot called ''[[Film/FantasticFour2015 Fant4stic]]'' became the second superhero film and third comic-book movie 11 years later. The other comic-book movie with a Worst Picture Razzie is 1986's ''Film/HowardTheDuck''.

** Creator/HalleBerry signed for a sequel but after all the bad reviews, development on the sequel was quickly squashed. This also made her available for the third ''X-Men'' film; she rejoined that series, but allegedly got paid less for her role that go round.

*** The context for that quote: She said it at the [[http://www.agonybooth.com/video328_Catwoman_2004_Halle_Berry.aspx Razzies]] as [[MedalOfDishonor she accepted her award for "Worst Actress"]]. The entire time, she was holding her Oscar for ''Monster's Ball'' in the other hand. Publicly reminding people that she is usually a good actress; the movie was just THAT bad. Razzies founder John Wilson even remarked that after seeing this, he expects Berry to run for the Oscar again.

-->''First of all, I want to thank Creator/WarnerBros. Thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, God-awful movie[...] It was just what my career needed.''

* ActorAllusion: It's not the first time Michael Massee (Armando) plays an henchman responsible for [[Film/TheCrow the main protagonist's Death who eventually comes back for vengeance.]]

** Halle Berry signed for a sequel but after all the bad reviews, development on the sequel was quickly squashed. This also made her available for the third ''X-Men'' film; she rejoined that series, but allegedly got paid less for her role that go round.

-->''"First of all, I want to thank Creator/WarnerBros. Thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, God-awful movie[...] It was just what my career needed."''

** This also happened with one of the film's VFX vendors, Creator/TippettStudio. Who actually went out of their way to point out the only effects they did in the film were the cats, at one point. They've since furthered their distance from the film by not even making ''any'' mention of it on their site.
* RecycledScript: As often noted on the web, bears a striking resemblance to ''Franchise/TheCrow''. In fact, the movie's first trailer was alleged to have the same narration script as ''Franchise/TheCrow'''s own trailer - only changing the respective animal.

** Ashley Judd was originally considered to play Patience, and the character's surname was originally ''Price''.

** Originally, "Outrageous" from Britney Spears was supposed to be the single from the movie. However, Britney injured her knee while filming the music video. With no video to promote the single, they instead used "Scandalous" by Music/MisTeeq.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Selina Kyle/Catwoman is said to have been originally modeled on actress Hedy Lamarr.
** Artist Adam Hughes also admits he models Catwoman after Audrey Hepburn.

* GenreKiller: The failure of both this film and ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' was a major reason that studios became so skittish about female superhero movies. Of course, this has resulted in numerous accusations that it was just being used as a cheap excuse, acting like their both being such awful movies couldn't be a factor in no one wanting to see them. It took the Film/DCExtendedUniverse's ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' more than a decade later to eventually prove that a female-led superhero movie can succeed critically and financially.

** Originally, "Outrageous" from Britney Spears was supposed to be the single from the movie. However, Britney injured her knee while filming the music video. With no video to promote the single, they instead used "Scandalous" by Mis-Teeq.

** The film was originally a {{spinoff}} from ''Film/BatmanReturns'', and would have followed Selena (intended to be played once again by Creator/MichellePfeiffer) as she supposedly took on a new enemy during a stay at a resort. The script was written by Daniel Waters and completed in 1995 (ironically, on the same day ''Film/BatmanForever'' was released), but both Creator/TimBurton and Pfeiffer dropped out soon after and the film was stuck in DevelopmentHell for years.

* ActorAllusion: It's not the first time Michael Massee (Armando) plays an henchman responsible for [[Film/TheCrow the main protgonist's Death who eventually comes back for vengeance.]]