The arrival of Alfred's niece Barbara, and her own undiscovered penchant for black rubber, only serves to complicate things even further and ruin the film even more, when she insist on joining in the fun as Batgirl - which provides the films most radical new addition.

''We've reimagined Batgirl,'' Goldsman adds, ''because when you have as many central characters as we have you need to create relationships that will bring some of the characters together. We tied Barbara to Alfred as his niece rather that have her - as she was in the TV series - as Commissioner Gordon's daughter because Alfred is a more central character in our story.''

Joel Schumacher admits that he was surprised at the universally positive response from fans - and Hollywood actresses.