Adam West’s Batman almost had a crossover movie with Godzilla called BATMAN MEETS GODZILLA

Here’s a fun piece of Batman movie trivia that was recently pointed out to me that I thought was cool! In the 1960s, Adam West’s Batman almost got a crossover movie with Godzilla! The film was titled Batman meets Godzillaand it’s one of those unproduced films that I wish I’d seen made!

The film was written around the same time that the Batman series premiered on ABC in 1966. There were two treatments that were actually written for the project before it was dropped, and only one of those treatments was saved and archived.

There was an American treatment written by William Dozier which is apparently held at the University of Wyoming. The other treatment was a Japanese version written by Shinichi Sekizawa, but no one knows where that is.

As a fan of both Batman and Godzilla it would have been really cool to see this movie made. There is no doubt that it would have been an all-time classic. As for what the story would entail, the following details were found on Lost Media from the treatment written by William Dozier:

Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara are on vacation aboard a cruise ship in the Far East. The commissioner is on his way to scout the “police facilities in the East” and Barbara is on her way to reunite with her old college friend, Reiko Hammamoto. All is going well until a huge tidal wave hits the ship and capsizes it. The giant wave turns out to be the work of Klaus Finster, a German meteorologist who moved to Japan. In his secret lair (hidden beneath Mt. Fuji), Klaus claims he is in control of the entire climate and will destroy Japan unless given $20 million in gold. Gordon decides there’s only one way to stop Klaus from destroying Japan: call in Batman and Robin.

It turns out that Finster doesn’t control the weather; however, he controls Godzilla instead. When he learns that Batman and Robin are coming to stop his evil plans, he flips a switch that allows Godzilla to escape and start rampaging across Japan. Finster also creates an android clone of Count Draidl (a friend of Batman) to fight the duo. After the android Draidl is defeated, Batman and Robin encounter Commissioner Gordon and the Japanese police. Batman thinks Godzilla is involved in the destruction of the city, so they watch some clips of Godzilla vs. King Kong, confirming that Godzilla is behind the destruction.

Batman and Robin decide to wait before going to defeat Finster, and Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson get into trouble. A “Kabuki” show turns into sword-fighting mayhem after actors on set ambush the duo. Reiko Hammamoto ends up decapitated in the chaos (but ends up being a robot built by Finster). After escaping, the hero duo decide to meet and do battle with Klaus, but end up in a car chase that includes a cab torture chamber slowly filling with toxic gas. The heroes almost choke on Barbara as Batgirl arrives to untie the cab door.

Batman finds Godzilla in Takada and his report on this helps him gain the trust of the Japanese government. They then follow Godzilla to Osaka and build a machine that recreates a mating call for Godzilla. The trio make their way to the overpass to block Godzilla’s way. Once there, they fight Finster, who slides off the building and falls to his death. During the fight, Godzilla grabs Batgirl, then Batman activates Godzilla’s mating call, which causes him to throw Batgirl away. Batman climbs onto Godzilla and straps explosives to his back, sending him flying into orbit.

I love! If you want to read the original treatment, you can check it out here. I wonder how audiences would have reacted to this film if it had been made.