Early Concept Art Turned The Shining's Jack Nicholson into Joker

As hard as it is to imagine now, there was a time, not that long ago, when superhero movies were a rarity. Go to one of Batman/The Dark Knight executive producer Michael Uslan's convention panels and you'll hear the tale of how he toiled for years to get Hollywood to take the Caped Crusader seriously.

Of course, they eventually did and Tim Burton's 1989 Batman was the result. But back in 1980, Uslan was still early in his quest when he was struck by inspiration: Spotting the famous "Here's Johnny" shot of Jack Nicholson from The Shining (in the New York Post), Uslan grabbed some white-out, a marker and a pen and transformed the actor into the Joker. Of course, it would be another nine years before that version of the Clown Prince of Crime would finally hit the big screen, but Uslan was obviously onto something.

And now this early, early concept art is being auctioned off through Metropolis Collectibles’ ComicConnect.com. The bidding is currently at $2,393, so good luck!

Via Movies.com and The Washington Post

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com