It’s hard to remember now in this century dominated by Pattinson’s and Bale’s, but 90s Batman hit a bit different. They cracked one-liners, drove extremely long bat mobiles, and two of them even had bat nipples on their suit. And now fans can own the most infamous of those be-nippled bat suits worn. If they have at least forty grand handy.
Heritage Auctions’ Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction will include the bat suit worn by George Clooney in 1997’s Batman and Robin, the box-office bomb that effectively put the franchise on ice (pun fully intended) for nearly a decade.
The suit, which, yes, does include the infamous bat nipples, already has an opening bid set at $40 thousand. In addition to the … protuberances, the suit comes with “a life-size pose-able mannequin with a hyper-realistic George Clooney head with prosthetic grade false eyes. Costume pieces include hero signature cowl, full-length superhero cape with 2-cape clips, muscle tunic with signature ‘Batman’ icon on the chest, muscled tights, peaked and finned gauntlet gloves, and knee-high character boots.” according to the Heritage description reported by Variety.
The suit’s iconic and now infamous look was inspired by the sculpted cuirass armor worn by gladiators. The sculpted abs and anatomical correctness were a perfect fit for the two high-camp Joel Schumacher-directed follow-ups to the original two Tim Burton Batman features.
The film’s lead sculptor, Jose Fernandez, told Mel Magazine he didn’t realize at the time he was making the chest pieces that they would cause such an uproar. “In the comic books, the characters always looked like they were naked with spray paint on them — it was all about anatomy, and I like to push anatomy,” Fernandez said. I don’t know exactly where my head was at back in the day, but that’s what I remember. And so, I added the nipples. I had no idea there was going to end up being all this buzz about it.”
The nipples were originally seen on Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever suit, but director Schumacher insisted that they be emphasized even more on the suit Clooney would wear in the next movie, much to Clooney’s chagrin. The superstar actor readily admits the campy disaster is unsalvageable. You have to remember, at that point, I was just an actor getting an acting job. I wasn’t the guy who could greenlight a movie,” Clooney once told Howard Stern, as covered by The Hollywood Reporter.
The auction will take place July 22-23