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Apparently, Welles himself was going to take on the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman (more on this little tidbit later). As for the remainder of the cast: Basil Rathbone was apparently set to play the Joker, Marlene Dietrich was to play Catwoman, George Raft was looking at Two-Face and… quite possibly the best casting decision ever, James Cagney as the Riddler. What apparently killed any possibility of Orson Welles’ Batman from being made was the fact that he wanted to play the lead, while the studio was in favor of Gregory Peck. Legend has it that when Welles found out about this, he immediately halted production and never considered the property again.

via reddit, chud