KURT: In movie news, "Batman and Robin," the fourth installment of the ultra-expensive Caped Crusader series, will be released on June 20th, and on its sound track, along with contributions from all the usual soundtrack suspects, will be a new song by Smashing Pumpkins, called "The End is the Beginning is the End." The band also gets to shoot a tie-in video for the song, and Chris Connelly stopped by the set to ask the question, "Have you guys sold out, or what?" Here's the answer.
BILLY CORGAN: I can already hear people going,
"Why is he writing a song for Batman?"
JOEL SCHUMACHER: He sold out.
SCHUMACHER: I think it was either Dorothy Parker or Pauline Kael, one of those brilliant ladies, that said if you're sitting around Hollywood wondering if you've sold out or not, you have.
CORGAN: So, yes we've sold out.
SCHUMACHER: Thank God! It's OK. There's no one more disenfranchised and disconnected and more alternative than Batman.
CHRIS CONNELLY: Some nine months into his involvement with "Batman and Robin," Billy Corgan says he still doesn't know what happens in the movie -- but that actually may have helped him write "The End is the Beginning is the End," and it certainly didn't prevent him and the rest of the Smashing Pumpkins from stuffing
themselves into neoprene for director Joel Schumacher's video.
CORGAN: At one point I found myself going, "I can't write a song about Batman, I'm in an alternative band." And I thought this is stupid, if I can write a song about Batman and it serves the purpose, which is to make it happen and connect with the movie, and connect with something that is unique and original, then, why not?
SCHUMACHER: I've always loved Billy's music and the band, so it was a dream come true that he would do a song for Batman.
CORGAN: For me, it was a great kind of artistic thing to do because it was very freeing. I wasn't talking about myself or trying to represent the Smashing Pumpkins. I was trying to represent Batman.
SCHUMACHER: What he managed to do was take all of the Batman legend from 1939 to the TV show to the movies and really encapsulate it in this fantastic sound.
CORGAN:
It's probably like what you would expect from us in the future. It's such a large leap from the last album that people will be surprised. It's the sound I've had mulling around in my head for a year.
CONNELLY: Lyrically, Corgan says his song tries to get underneath the twisted skull of the Caped Crusader. For the video, Schumacher plans to combine footage of the Pumpkins with fleeting glimpses of "Batman and Robin."
SCHUMACHER: We didn't have to put the film in the video because I don't think it's important to make an infomercial for the movie. But he really wanted to explore Batman's brain.
CORGAN: The video is more of its own kind of take on Batman's pathology, if you will.
SCHUMACHER: So the images from the film will sort of whirl around inside.
CORGAN: But it's really not about the film, it's more about how
Batman would think about the things that would go on.
CONNELLY: So what is inside Batman's brain?
CORGAN: You will find out.
SCHUMACHER: We're not going to tell you everything.
CORGAN: I could tell you one thing, Uma Thurman is inside Batman's brain. She will be there.
KURT: Joining the Pumpkins on the "Batman" soundtrack will be R. Kelly, Jewel, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony among others.
