Composer Jim Steinman confirmed to Playbill On-Line Sept. 18 that film director Tim Burton will make his stage directorial debut with the new musical version of Batman. The production team of Steinman, Burton and librettist David Ives are in pre-production for the musical about the caped crusader.

"It's more like his first two movies than any of the other movies. It's very dark and gothic, but really wildly funny. It was my dream that he do this," Steinman disclosed.

Composer Steinman—of Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell" Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind—is writing the score and lyrics. Steinman and Ives are currently teaming up on the upcoming musical Dance of the Vampires directed by Tony Award winner John Rando and choreographer John Carrafa.

This is the first major news on the project since April 1999, when news came out that Warner Brothers was developing a musical version of “Batman.” Time Warner, who owns the rights for the caped crusader, had been aiming to place Batman: The Musical on Broadway by early 2001. In late 1999, Ives' representative at Writers & Artists told Playbill On-Line that a "big big project" such as Batman would likely take "two more years to get on."

Burton directed the original "Batman" as well as its first sequel "Batman Returns." Two more editions, directed by Joel Schumacher, followed. Burton's other credits include "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," "Beetlejuice," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Edward Scissorhands." — by Ernio Hernandez
and Robert Simonson