Gotham City
General Information
Official name:	Gotham City
Created by:	Anton Furst
First Appearance:	Batman
Galaxy:	Milky Way
Star System:	Sol
Planet:	Earth
Country:	United States of America
State:	New Jersey
Locale:	Old Gotham (Nolan Films)

Gotham City was Batman's home city and base of operations.

Due to the absence of contributing businesses due to corruption and criminal influence, the city's tax base was crumbling.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Batman 1.2 Batman Returns 2 Locales 3 Gallery 4 Behind the scenes 4.1 Background Information and Notes 4.2 Legacy 5 Trivia

HistoryEdit

BatmanEdit

Batman ReturnsEdit

LocalesEdit

Batman (1989) Batcave Wayne Manor Monarch Theatre Axis Chemicals Gotham Globe Vicki Vale's Apartment Joker's Studio Grissom's Penthouse City Hall Flugelheim Museum Adelph Hotel Flat & Flat Lawyers Gotham Cathedral Gotham Central Union Square Arnee's Bar Nite Spots Larry's Brackmann's Delicatessen Quick-Way Bernie's Allday Liquor Store Gerrold's Jos. Stein Supplies Gotham Diner Corto Maltese

Batman Returns Batcave Wayne Manor Cobblepot Manor Old Zoo Arctic World Shreck's Selina Kyle's Apartment Hall of Records Gotham Plaza Ocean City (mentioned only)

GalleryEdit

Behind the scenesEdit

Background Information and NotesEdit

In the opening lines of the Sam Hamm screenplay for the 1989 film, Gotham is described as if "Hell erupted through the pavement and built a city". The logic is that when elevators were utilized for taller structures, the buildings that reached over a few stories were built around the existing structures of Gotham City. These skyscapers cast a shadow over the city coupled with the smoke from Gotham's industry kept the city in perpetual dusk.

Anton Furst's set designs for the movie were an attempt to imagine what might have happened to New York City had there been no planning commission and had it been run by pure extortion and crime. Hence, there were no height restrictions, the skyscrapers were cantilevered toward the street rather than away, there were lots of bridges over the streets. In return, the city appeared to be extremely dark and claustrophobic. Burton even stated himself that his take on Gotham was "As if Hell came sprouting out of the concrete and kept right on growing."

A majority of Gotham's street scenes in Batman (1989) were achieved with model buildings and matte paintings in the background. Furst deliberately mixed clashing architectural styles to make Gotham City the ugliest and bleakest metropolis imaginable.

For Tim Burton's second Batman film, Batman Returns, Bo Welch took over the production design duties from Anton Furst. Welch for the most part, based his designs on Furst's concepts. Whereas Anton Furst's designs showed a considerable amount of sinister visual grandeur, Bo Welch's designs had a more whimsical approach. Welch blended "Fascist architecture with World's Fair architecture" for Gotham City. Russian architecture and German Expressionism were also studied.

LegacyEdit

In a 1992 comic book storyline "Destroyer", a man obsessed with Cyrus Pinkney's architecture blew up several Gotham buildings in order to reveal the Pinkney structures they had hidden; the editorial purpose behind this was to transform the city depicted in the comics to resemble the designs created by Anton Furst for the 1989 Batman film.

Noted buildings in the film; such as the Gotham Cathedral, the Monarch Theatre and the appearance of the GCPD Headquarters, were also accomodated into the comic books and Batman mythos.

TriviaEdit

• A map of Gotham City used in Batman (1989) was actually an inverted map of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• The flag of Gotham City closely resembles the state flag of Indiana. It can be seen briefly in Harvey Dent's office
• At least 50% of the Warner Brothers lot was taken up with Gotham City sets for Batman Returns. The massive Gotham City sets were all constructed to be mobile, and were often shifted between days of filming. Michelle Pfeiffer routinely got lost on her way to filming each day.
• The design of Gotham City is based on the work of architects Antoni Gaudi, Otto Wagner, Shia Takamatsu and Louis H. Sullivan.