Although not many of us remember Batman & Robin as being one of the better entries in the film franchise, a bright spot, in my view, was that of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze. Okay, I admit he wouldn’t have been on my shortlist to portray the character, but the ice puns that populated his goofy dialogue were about the only things in that movie capable of making me smile.
As it so happens, the entry that put the Batman line of films on ice for eight years is now celebrating its 20th anniversary and, not surprisingly, various interesting factoids are coming to light. In addition to recently learning that Joel Schumacher dreamed of directing a flick centered on Arkham Asylum, Arnie’s paycheck has also now been spoken of publicly, and from the sounds of it, he made a killing.
Knowing what a huge star Schwarzenegger was at the time of production, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that he was paid handsomely. Unfortunately, they didn’t pay him in diamonds that could power his mechanical suit, but he did make off with a cool $25 million. In other words, $1 million per day on set.
Producer Peter MacGregor-Scott certainly wasn’t shy when discussing the matter with The Hollywood Reporter:
“The cast ate the money up. It’s tough when you wake up in the morning and just spent $25 million! Oh dear. But he was great.”
Another interesting tidbit to surface is that of rewrites occurring, effectively changing Mr. Freeze from being a thespian’s dream to someone with a penchant for puns. At least, that’s according to storyboard artist Tim Burgard:
“All the dialogue was for Mr. Freeze, you could tell it was meant for somebody who would deliver it in a Shakespearean fashion. It was hysterical; in my head, I was reading Freeze’s dialogue as Schwarzenegger.”
For much more on Batman & Robin, be sure to check out our extensive retrospective.