Behind the scenes: Over 800 bats are used to create Batman

For thousands of years, cinema-goers across the world have enjoyed the wacky onscreen antics of Batman: Prince of Darkness. But did you know how difficult it is to actually make a Batman?

“Obviously, when a new Batman film is announced, I’m thrilled, but inwardly, I do groan a bit,” said Stewart James, Bat wrangler, who worked on the recent Robert Pattinson Batman film Batman: Grumpy Man of Bats.

“The realities of creating a convincing Batman onscreen are tough. Long hours. Lots of bats. Most people think a Batman is just a man in a suit, and that’s certainly how a Batman used to be created, but, nowadays, audiences are more sophisticated and demand a more realistic Batman.”

That realism is provided using over 800 specially trained bats a day.

“If we’re filming a scene with a Batman, I’ll arrive on set at 2am. I’ll spend two hours gluing the bats together into the shape of a person. Then it’s another hour just getting the bats used to moving in a way that looks like a human man, then we’re good to film.”

Mr James then remains on set to look after his bats, coax them in difficult bits and see they’re not mistreated.

“You have to be carefully. Tim Burton was a callous bastard who used to make the bats dance for his amusement between takes. I don’t put up with that sort of thing anymore.”

At the end of each day, Mr James dismantles of the Batman.

“Sadly, there’s no way to unglue all the bats so I humanely dispose of each bat by stamping on it. That takes about two hours and then I’m home for bed before getting up and doing it all again in the morning. It’s tough, but worth it for a realistic Batman.”

Interestingly, it was realism that saw the recent Batgirl film cancelled.

“Whilst we can get bats glued together to convince as a Batman, we simply can’t do it for a Batgirl. Bats just have no concept of boobs.”