RANT & REEL
A TALK WITH
BATMAN SCREENWRITER
SAM HAMM
Mister Fo and I are on Dia-
mond Street in San Francisco,
knocking at the door of the
Hamm house while a dog yaps
like he owns the place. The guy
who answers is a sturdy 6'1" with
blond hair.
"That's Willie," says Hamm as
he opens the door and lets us in.
by H.W. Moss
Willie is a small black and white mutt about six inches tall. The dog
keeps barking and snarffles the photog's feet. "He takes about 30
seconds to get to know you, then he quiets down."
Sam offers us a drink. Do we want coffee? Soda? "Got any
scotch? Asks the Fo man. I order flavored sparkling water while
J&B splashes over ice and we settle in the kitchen of this giant Vic
torian house Hamm lives in all by himself.
Sam Hamm is riding easy these days.
He ought to be-he's the guy who wrote the biggest movie of the
decade, "Batman." The movie is so big it made "Star Trek V" fade
into its final frontier. It already grossed more than $202 million and
that doesn't include the T-shirts and bat-masks and other hype that
goes with it.
Hamm is 33 now, but he got his first big film break when he was
24 and went on location to Alaska for "Never Cry Wolf," starring
Charles Martin Smith. Hamm spent months in Skagway writing the
script. At that time Skagway was the only port in America servicing
Russian and Chinese ships-a dismal, cold, nothing place to live.
And though he got lots of screen credit for "Wolf," it did not turn
into the mega-boost for Hamm's career he thought it would.
"After that I was basically unemployed for three years." Sam says
he has been writing screenplays for ten years, earning a living at
it for the last five, mostly writing comedy.
"Actually, 'Batman' was the first action script I've ever done," he
tells us.
With "Batman, though, things have finally gone right in a very
big way. I ask what the next project is and learn it's an updated
98
version of the old television
spook series called "The
Avengers."
"Diana Rigg played Emma
Peel and Patrick MacNee was
the other spy," says Hamm, who
is drinking coffee like a sensible
person.
Mo pipes up at this point.
"She'd kick people in the face with go go boots," he says.
"Nice boots," Hamm agrees. "I'm working on the script. It's an
updated version of those characters. Mel Gibson is supposed to play
the lead and the female lead is not cast yet."
He tells us "The Avengers" script is due shortly. But Hamm says
he is running a little behind. As usual. They give him about sixteen
weeks to write a first draft, but it's flexible.
"I never get 'em in on time," he says nonchalantly. "It varies. You
get 'em in when you get 'em in."
Hamm does not want to divulge the plot of "The Avengers," but
says it will be a whole new story taking place in London.
"Do they eat sushi?" my photog asks serenely. Hamm relents.
"John Steed and Emma Peel are the two characters from the TV
series," he tells us. "It's a spy story involving some bad guys from
the International League of Bad Guys. I can't give out specific plot
points. I don't like to do that before the script is finished. Besides,
it's not the sort of thing you want to blab in a magazine before the
movie comes out. The movie is a couple of years off and the stuff
you throw out is fair game for anyone else to use."
Mo is curious. "Is there any truth to the rumor that Telly Savalas
is gonna appear as a transvestite criminal?"
"I can't say that there's no truth to that rumor," says Hamm, smiling.
"But we could be wrong."
Hamm has other active scripts. One is based on "The Watchmen."
a DC Comics book originally written by Alan Moore and illustrated
by Dave Gibbons. He is also working on a science fiction script called
"Time Out of Jo'nt," from a Philip K. Dick novel.
Hamm tells us he wrote "Batman" in '86 and the story is all his
own; it was never in a comic book. When he sent it to the studios
to look at, the response was so good they approached him to make
"The Avengers."
Why isn't Robin in the Batman movie, I ask. Is Hamm respon-
sible for cutting him out?
"No," he says quickly. "Robin was in every draft I wrote. The studio
said we could do whatever we wanted but it had to have the Joker
in and it had to have Robin."
However, Hamm says it was hard to make Robin fit. You're trying
to introduce the character of Batman, he says, and you have to deal
with Batman's origin, then you have the Joker's origin to deal with.
And then you've got this third character who comes out of the blue
and you've got to set up these other characters before you can tell
his story.
"We finally worked him in," says Hamm, "but when they got
around to actually shooting the picture and the budget was looking
fairly enormous, that was the most obvious thing to lift out and
streamline the movie considerably."
Who was supposed to play Robin?
"I think they had signed some unknown kid from New York,"
Hamm informs us. "I don't know what his name was."
"He's still unknown," observes Sir Fo sadly. "Still unknown."
Shaking his head and raising his right fist he says. "He coulda been
a contenda!"
"I think he was in the script until about a month before shooting
started," says Hamm, who has remained remarkably good natured
all afternoon. The dog has become real chummy while Em scratches
his ear. Willie drops some fleas at his feet.
I ask what kind of music Sam likes and he says NWA and De La
Soul are on his list but Run DMC is kind of tired. He's a basketball
nut and says he likes the Knicks. As for books, he reads everything.
"I was an English lit major. BA from the University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA. The alma mater of Ralph Sampson. I did a year
of graduate work at SUNY in Buffalo. State University of New York."
"Not a Hemingway geek or nothing?" asks the McMan between
scratchings. "You like Hunter Thompson?"
"I wonder whose geek I am?" says Hamm to himself with a smile.
Then he says, "I was just reading Hunter Thompson's 'Generation
of Swine' the other night."
At this point the phone rings. I ask Sam if he wants to answer it.
"Naw."
Mo says brightly, "I will."
Hamm has the presence of mind to let his answering machine
pick it up. Does a writer get points like an actor gets?
"I have profit points in the movie, but that's something which won't
likely materialize," he says. "I think the movie would have to do
probably $225 or 240 million before I'd start seeing points. It was
a very expensive movie, obviously, and I only get a percentage of
the producer's profits. Nicholson or somebody like that is probably
commanding gross points, which means he gets a chunk of all the
money that comes back to the studio from the first ticket sold. And
I understand he also managed to cut a deal where he gets a portion
of the merchandising.
"That means that every chronic masturbator who is wearing a
Batman t-shirt is essentially paying a few cents to Jack Nicholson,"
says Hamm like Mo might have.
It is time to leave and I stand up. Willie runs into the living room
like he's fetching a bone..
"Oops. You missed yer chance to be friendly," says Mo. "See,
he's giving you stink-eye."
Mo clicks his camera a bunch of times. Willie barks goodbye. Sam
shakes our hands. The J&B bottle lies empty on the kitchen table.
CHOPPING LIST
by Marc Shapiro
Without A Brain, features insane
sex fiends, terrorists, naked voodoo
C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud freaks and big busted babes. And
(Vestron)
Cannibalistic Humanoid Under-
ground Dwellers (CHUD's to you)
fall in love. One of the dumber flicks
to come down the pike, this has
nothing to do with the original, not
bad CHU.D. An all-star bash
featuring Bianca Jagger, Robert
Vaughn and June Lockhart.
To Die For (Academy)
Trendy Los Angeles vampires do
lunch in this fair-to-decent play on
legendary vampire lore. Notable for
being the last role for Dune Jones
of Night Of The Living Dead fame
and Elm Street III sweetheart
Amanda Wyss. Flawed, but then
what isn't?
Night Of The Demons (Republic)
Linnea Quigley, the uncrowned
queen of low-budget horror flicks,
toplines this possessed party saga.
Acceptable scares, passable story
and featuring the debut of Cathy
Podewell, who has gone on to big-
ger and better things as JR's main
squeeze on Dallas. Check out the
lipstick sequence.
Satan's Storybook (Even Steven)
This lame anthology has almost
nothing going for it, but the serial
killer wears an Exodus T-shirt.
The Occultist (Unicorn)
This movie, which has also gone
under the moniker of Private Dick
A "Night of the Demons" party chick.
that's just in the first real.
Things (InterAmerican)
When a husband finds out he
can't have children, he forces his
wife to undergo a hideous experi-
ment. The result? Murderous
demons hatch inside her womb.
Guaranteed to do more damage to
male-female relationships than
Fatal Attraction.
Speed Freaks (Santa Cruz)
This is a completely haul ass, no
bull, eye buggin' treat. It's non-stop
one-man action with a sonic
backdrop provided by SST. Hosoi,
Dressen, Magnussen, Kaupus,
Way, Thiebaud, Knox, Allen, Oster,
Vallely. Stranger, Reyes. Nolder,
Grosso and Salba are just some of
the assault crew within. The
filming, done by Tony Roberts, is
superb. He's in close for footwork
or coping smoke, then wide for a
gargantuan air or Salba's definitive
double axle carve-grinds. We follow
close behind some of the best as
they rip through their home turf. It's
only after following speedy Eric
Dressen as he carves through a
maze of pole infested hallways and
ollies down several flights of stairs
that I realized. "Sheel Roberts was
skating right with him, allies and
all-with a camera!?!" Go get.
Speed Freaks now. Faster sissy!
Jeff Klindt