Since his first appearance in 1939, Batman has been adapted into such media as film, radio, television, and video games, as well as numerous merchandising items.
A number of Batman theatrical films have been made. There have also been several attempted projects during the hiatus between Batman & Robin and Batman Begins.
In 1966, Batman: The Movie feature film based on the contemporaneous Batman television series was released. It starred Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, Frank Gorshin as the Riddler, and Lee Meriweather as Catwoman.
In 1999, Tim McCanlies wrote a pilot script and series bible for a planned series called Bruce Wayne to be produced by Tollin/Robbins Productions. Taking place in his teenage years, the series would cover his passage into young adulthood, training, and development into becoming Batman. Other characters would include Alfred, Sergeant Jim Gordon, law school student Harvey Dent, and a seductive young Selina Kyle. Planned to run for five to six seasons, it would show how he acquired his martial arts skills, his equipment, and detective abilities he would use in his war on crime. It would also focus on topics such as corruption within the board of Wayne Enterprises (an element which influenced Batman Begins and Gotham) and police affiliation with the mafia. Bruce Wayne was nearing pre-production when Warner Bros. movie division felt it would conflict with the planned Year One movie and scrapped it. The result was Batman Begins and Tollin/Robbins Productions later went to create Smallville, a series about a teenage Clark Kent.