Warner Brothers has hired playwright David Ives (All in the Timing, Mere Mortals) to write the book for the new Broadway-bound, Batman: The Musical, reports Variety (April 22).

Despite Livent's bad luck and Disney's "Aida" setbacks, corporate inroads into Broadway continue. Warner Brothers is developing plans to bring the comic strip character Batman to the boards as a musical. Composer Jim Steinman, of Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell" fame and lyricist of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind, will write the score and lyrics.

Insiders claim that Stephen Daldry (Via Dolorosa & An Inspector Calls) passed on the project, with Robin Phillips (Jekyll & Hyde) in negotiations for it, also according to Variety.

Should Warner Brothers bring the dark knight to the Great White Way, it will be following in the tracks of several corporate colleagues. Disney has produced two musicals on Broadway -- Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King -- and has two more in the works (Aida, Hunchback of Notre Dame).

For the past decade, Batman and his sidekick Robin has been the subject of a series of highly popular "event" movies, such as "Batman and Robin" and "Batman Forever." Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney have all played film versions of the Caped Crusader. Time Warner, who owns the rights for the caped crusader, is aiming to place the tuner on Bway by early 2001.

-- By Sean McGrath